Beyond Life and Death
by necris14
Summary: My own spin on the XY anime, starting right before XY030. Amourshipping, romantic adventure story, with a fair bit of Pokemon action thrown in for good measure.
1. Chapter 1: Another Day

_Hey everyone! I promised you an Amour story on par with my old Advance ones, so I think it's finally time to deliver on that. _

_It's my hope and dream to continually improve every time I write something, though I realize I may or may not actually do that. That being said, I hope this story turns out at least as good as Love is Blind did, because I didn't expect the praise I ended up getting for that._

_Anyway, here you are. Please enjoy!_

* * *

_A dry wave of heat swept through the forest, warming the already hotter-than-she-would-like young girl that happened to be walking through it at that moment. She frowned in a mixture of fear and discomfort as multiple beads of sweat dripped down her face and fell to the dusty ground beneath her._

"_Where is everybody…?!" The young girl, Serena, cried out, hoping that one of her companions would hear her and direct her out of the mass of trees and brush. She was currently attending a Pokemon summer camp, hosted by the renowned researcher Professor Oak. She hadn't been too keen on attending, however, and in her attempt to distance herself from the main group, she had apparently wound up getting lost in the nearby forest._

"_Where did you all go?" Serena asked again, though now it was clear that nobody was within earshot. Despite the fact that her mother had forced her to go to the camp, she was secretly afraid of Pokemon, and, honestly, wanted nothing to do with them. "Aaah!"_

_She recoiled at the sound of rustling leaves and subsequently tripped on a protruding root, causing her to fall over backward. She stared at the bush in front of her in terror, too afraid to even move, until the source of the noise finally burst forth and revealed itself._

"_Poli!" A small, child-sized Pokemon emerged, bounding forward on its stubby legs and using its tail to balance in place of arms, which it lacked; a Poliwag. "Pawl?" It stopped and spared a confused but cheerful glance to Serena for a moment before merrily bounding off deeper into the trees, chanting 'Poli!' to itself with every hop._

_Serena continued to stare off at the creature long after it had left her line of sight. "I knew I didn't want to come to camp…I knew it…" She mumbled sadly, tears welling up in her sapphire-blue eyes. "MOMMY!" _

_Despite her cries, she was met with only silence, and a few moments later, she heard something else rustling in the same bush that the Poliwag had recently emerged from. More tears escaped from her eyes, and so she shut them tight, hoping that she would wake up in her bed and find everything to have simply been a bad dream._

_That was not the case, however, and instead of waking up, she heard a young boy's voice calling out from the brush. "Poliwag?"_

_Serena opened her eyes and stared at the boy in shock. She didn't think anybody else had wandered out this far, especially after failing to receive any reply to her calls for help earlier. The boy noticed her a second or two later and turned to her inquisitively. "Hey, are you all right?"_

"_Huh…?" Serena answered, not really thinking through what she was saying. Something about this boy seemed…different. Calm, kind. Almost…caring._

"_Hi. I'm Ash!" The boy announced proudly when he didn't receive an answer. "Who're you?"_

"_Uh…" Serena answered, still unable to speak due to the lingering fear of being 'attacked' by Poliwag, as well as the shock of Ash emerging from the bushes. And she was just now noticing that there was something else bothering her, too…_

"_What's wrong…?" Ash asked her, noticing that something was amiss._

"_I hurt…my leg…" Serena replied, finally mustering up an answer for the boy. She hadn't noticed it right away, but apparently her tripping over backward had injured her leg more than she had initially thought. She was finding it difficult to move, and pain was shooting out from it in waves._

"_Don't worry!" Ash reassured her, bending down to her level and pulling something out of his back pocket. "See this? This'll make it better!"_

_The item in question was a handkerchief, mostly white, but with a baby-blue stripe along the bottom edge of it. In the two bottom corners, overlapping both colors, was a small Poke Ball emblem. Ash bent down and wrapped it around Serena's injured leg, a little above the knee, and tied it with a bow._

"_All done!" Ash announced proudly, prompting Serena to attempt to stand up. She couldn't. _

"_Ow…" She murmured, but this only seemed to further encourage Ash. _

"_Now watch this!" Ash said, waving his hands around the makeshift bandage as if he were casting a spell. "Feel better, feel better, right away!"_

_Serena tried to shift weight to her leg again, but to no avail. If anything, it hurt worse now. "Ouch! It still hurts…I can't stand up…"_

_Ash got to his feet, that oddly comforting smile still present on his face. "Never give up 'till it's over. Okay? Come on!"_

_He held his hand out to her, presumably to help her up himself. "Huh…?" Serena breathed, still somewhat taken aback by Ash's forwardness and helpful attitude. She stared at his hand for a moment before reaching out and taking it._

_Ash gripped her hand tightly and pulled her up, hard. So hard, in fact, that when she came to her feet, she continued forward a bit and fell forward slightly, her head landing on Ash's shoulder. To her surprise, she found that she was, in fact, able to stand, although her leg was still throbbing. She pulled back from him after a moment, and found that he was grinning at her even wider than he was before._

"_There you go!" Ash said proudly, chuckling at her happily. "I think we should getting back to the campsite, okay? Come on!"_

_Ash, still holding her hand, slowly began to guide her out of the forest. What he failed to notice, however, was that Serena found it unable to take her eyes off of him the entire walk back._

* * *

Serena slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times until her vision came into focus. All that was visible from her perspective was a blank white ceiling.

"What…happened?" She moaned groggily to herself, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. She looked around the room at her travelling companions as her sense of reality gradually came back to her. She saw Clemont, the young Lumiose City Gym Leader who also happened to be a kind of genius, though his inventions had a bad habit of blowing up while being used.

Next to Clemont was Bonnie, his younger sister, who was too young to be a real Pokemon Trainer, though that didn't stop her from following her brother around and learning everything she can from him, and trying to find him a suitable wife while she's at it.

Finally, Serena's eyes drifted over to Ash, who appeared to have thrown his covers off in his sleep, and was now lying on his bed in an oddly twisted position with nothing covering him from the admittedly mild temperature of their room.

She smiled after staring at him for a moment. _"Ash…"_

Ever since she had found him in Santalune City following some of the most ridiculous coincidences she had ever witnessed, her life had seemed to be just a little bit brighter. Not only had she miraculously befriended her starter Pokemon, Fennekin, but actually getting to travel around Kalos and see the world, making her own decisions and having new experiences…it was a feeling she couldn't describe even if someone had asked her to. Ash had proven to her that she could be whatever she wanted to be, even if she didn't exactly know what that was just yet.

And that wasn't even taking into account Serena's hidden feelings for him.

She wasn't sure when she had realized it, but there was certainly no denying it. At some point between meeting him as a little girl and joining him, Clemont, and Bonnie on their journey across Kalos, she had fallen in love with him. Ever since she'd seen him climb to the top of Prism Tower on TV, she'd known that something was different about him. She thought he looked familiar back then, and when she found out his name, she knew it had to be the same boy that she'd had a crush on as a little girl.

Leaving home to find him was a pretty far-fetched idea, but it was around the time she was supposed to go and start her Pokemon journey anyway, so she was able to rationalize it to herself that way. But when she finally met up with him in person, and spoke to him, and watched him battle...butterflies in her stomach was the only way to describe it, but at the same time it was so much more than that.

That was months ago. Now, their group seemed inseparable, and Serena had happily settled into being one of his close companions. It was enough for her to just be there for him and help him along on his journey. Somewhere in the back of her head, there was a voice telling her that she would have to deal with her feelings eventually, but so far she had always managed to ignore it.

"Pii…" Pikachu yawned suddenly, causing Serena to jump and look down at its resting place at the foot of Ash's bed. The small Electric Mouse Pokemon was Ash's constant companion, something that had surprised her at first but was endearing all the same, to the point where nowadays she couldn't imagine seeing Ash without Pikachu perched on his shoulder or walking at his feet. Their close bond had even inspired Serena to try and become closer with her Fennekin.

After a moment, Pikachu's eyes drifted around and noticed Serena staring at it. "Pika?"

"Good morning, Pikachu!" Serena greeted warmly.

"Pii-ka!" Pikachu answered, smiling back at her.

"Uuugh…is it morning already?" Ash muttered, gradually pulling himself up and rubbing his eyes.

"Sure looks that way…" Clemont added from across the room as Bonnie opened her eyes and yawned, both of them sitting up as well.

"Wait a minute…I remember now!" Ash exclaimed, jumping up out of bed suddenly. "Today's the day we make it to Shalour City, right?"

"Well, yes…according to Serena's map, anyway." Clemont replied groggily, still not fully awake yet.

"All right! Then that makes I get to see the Shalour Gym today, too!" Ash declared boldly.

"Pika!" Pikachu added, channeling its trainer's enthusiasm.

"Come on, guys! Let's get ready and get moving!" Ash ordered, gesturing dramatically at the one door that led out of their room.

"Uhh…okay…just give me a minute to…finish waking up…" Clemont mumbled, his eyes gradually falling shut of their own accord.

"Oh, please, big brother! I'm the one who could hardly sleep last night, since you were snoring so loud!" Bonnie declared.

Ash and Serena watched the two of them argue and couldn't help but laugh. A few moments later, Ash turned and looked back at her. "Well, I'm gonna go get ready. Keep an eye on them until I get back, 'kay?"

Serena chuckled at that last bit and nodded. She continued watching him as he made his way to the bathroom and shut the door, and she found that the smile remained stuck to her face as well. _"Yeah…I'm happy just the way things are now."_

* * *

_As always, please R&amp;R! I'll see you guys in a few days, where SOMETHING WILL ACTUALLY HAPPEN!_


	2. Chapter 2: The Successor

_Hey guys! Got the second chapter for you today. It took me a little bit longer to put together than I expected, because as anybody who has read any of my stuff knows, I hate, hate, HATE writing build-up. I have to be in, like, a specific mood or something to be able to get through it. It's the big problem I have that honestly keeps me from writing more stuff. _

_So, in conclusion, sorry it took me a week to write this, and I promise that things will pick up in the future. _

_Now that that's out of the way, please enjoy!_

* * *

Following Serena's dream that morning, the group quickly got themselves packed up and departed from the Pokémon Center early, planning to make it out of the forest and into Shalour City before sundown.

"So have you guys heard the stories about Shalour City and the Tower of Mastery?" Clemont mentioned once they had gotten on the road.

"Not me." Serena answered, looking over at the young Gym Leader curiously.

"Tower of Mastery?" Ash echoed back to him. "What's that?"

"It's a gigantic, ancient tower sitting right outside of Shalour City." Clemont explained, a pack of Nidoran darting across the path in front of them as they continued walking. "The story goes that it holds the secret to Mega Evolution, and that the secret is passed down from generation to generation of Shalour City Gym Leaders."

"Mega Evolution? That's what Diantha and her Gardevoir did against Team Rocket, right?" Serena asked.

"Yeah…and there was that guy with the Blaziken in Lumiose City, too." Ash added.

"Pika." Pikachu chimed in happily.

Clemont nodded to both of them. "Well, supposedly this city holds the secret to how it works. I can't wait to investigate the Tower of Mastery myself!"

"I wonder if it's possible for Dedenne to Mega Evolve…" Bonnie mused, putting a hand to her chin and letting her eyes lose focus as the possibilities began racing through her mind.

"Na-na-na!" Dedenne added.

The group continued their trek through the woods until, finally, the path came to a steep incline and veered off to the side, leaving a hefty drop-off with a view of the horizon directly before them.

"Oh, wow! Check it out!" Ash exclaimed, leading the charge to the edge of the cliff. A large city lay sprawled out beneath them, bordered by the ocean to the west and what appeared to be a cave to the south. To the northwest, just off the coast, sat an enormous, ornately designed tower.

"Shalour City…we made it, you guys!" Serena exclaimed happily.

"Then that must be the Tower of Mastery!" Bonnie deduced, pointing to the massive tower sitting next to the ocean.

"Yeah, that's right." An unfamiliar voice spoke up suddenly, prompting the entire group to look to the right. "Pretty impressive, don't you think?"

Approaching them from below the slope was a girl that looked around their age, maybe a little older, with long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. She was clad in a white tank-top and black shorts, and was outfitted with what appeared to be retractable roller skates. Beside her, matching her pace perfectly, was a roughly human-sized Pokémon that bore more similarities to a dog than a human.

"Yeah, it is." Ash agreed, smiling at her as she walked up alongside her Pokémon companion. "Are you from around here?"

"I guess you could say that." The girl answered coyly, smiling back at him. "My name's Korrina, and this is Lucario."

"Rrr." Lucario growled warmly in acknowledgement.

"Lucario?" Serena repeated, pulling out her Pokédex.

"_Lucario, the Aura Pokémon. Lucario are able to sense the aura emanating from other creatures, and they use this to read the thoughts and movements of those around them." _

"Wow, can it really do that?" Bonnie asked, staring at Korrina's partner with anticipation.

"Of course." Korrina answered. "In fact…you guys are Pokémon Trainers, aren't you? Do you want to have a battle with us? Then you could see Lucario's abilities firsthand!"

"Huh? A battle?" Ash replied, slightly taken aback at the sudden request.

"Yeah! If you're thinking of challenging the Shalour Gym at the Tower of Mastery, then this should be a good warm-up for you, right?" Korrina goaded, winking at Ash as she tried to win him over.

"…What do you think, buddy?" Ash asked, looking over at Pikachu, who was still perched on his shoulder.

"Pika-chu!" Pikachu answered excitedly, raising one arm in affirmation.

"All right, sure! I'll have a battle with you, Korrina!"

Everyone seemed excited to see the inevitable Pikachu vs. Lucario match that they all assumed it was going to be, and they rushed off down the slope to find a more open and level area to battle in. They introduced themselves to Korrina along the way, and seemed to hit it off quite well with her. However, Serena couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was a little off about her…though she couldn't tell what it was exactly.

"How's a one-on-one battle sound, Ash?" Korrina challenged once they had found a suitable plot of grass among the trees. The rest of the group had piled off to the side, with Clemont standing in as the acting referee.

"That's fine with me." Ash answered confidently, smirking at her from across the field as Pikachu jumped down to ground level. "You ready, Pikachu?"

"Pika pika!" Pikachu replied energetically, staring down Lucario with fire in its eyes. This wasn't the first time the two of them had encountered the Aura Pokémon, and they were both familiar with what it was capable of.

"This will be a one-on-one battle between Ash and Korrina, with no substitutions for either side!" Clemont announced. "Ready…begin!"

"Pikachu, hit 'im fast and hard! Use Quick Attack!" Ash called.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried, zooming forward toward Lucario and leaving a white trail of energy in its wake.

"Lucario, jump up and dodge it!" Korrina ordered.

"Rrraaaa!" Lucario growled, nimbly leaping up into the air just as Pikachu streaked by underneath it.

"Pikachu, turn around and use Quick Attack again!"

"Hit it with Power-Up Punch, Lucario!"

Pikachu turned on a dime and dashed in the opposite direction toward Lucario again, but just as it got within range, Lucario's fist sprouted an amber-orange aura and slammed into Pikachu, catching the Electric Mouse's momentum and using it to send Pikachu sailing backward and onto the ground.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried out. "You all right, buddy?"

"Piika!" Pikachu responded energetically, jumping back to all fours after recovering from its fall.

"All right, use Thunderbolt!"

"Piika-chuuuuu!" Pikachu boomed, charging up energy in its cheeks before loosing it in a bolt of lightning, directed straight at Lucario.

"Lucario, use Bone Rush to block it!"

"Rru!" Lucario grunted, holding its right hand out as a glowing white bone-shaped slab of energy materialized from its palm. It spun the bone club around and pointed it to the sky as the Thunderbolt approached, causing the electric attack to be attracted to the ground element of the club itself.

"What?!" Ash exclaimed in shock, watching in disbelief as Pikachu's attacked dissipated harmlessly within Lucario's club.

"Piiika?!" Pikachu gasped, bearing a similar train of thought as Ash.

"Oh, wow…!" Clemont said as he, Bonnie, and Serena stared on in awe as well. "Lucario used the ground type of Bone Rush to completely absorb Pikachu's electric attack!"

Korrina grinned smugly. "We're just getting started. Lucario, jump in the trees and use Bone Rush from above!"

Lucario silently obliged, grasping the bone club tightly and dashing to one of the nearby trees. Before Pikachu's eyes could keep up, it bounded high into the sky over the battlefield, aiming to descend on Pikachu with its club in hand.

"It's so fast!" Ash cried, watching Lucario's arc of descent as it fell toward Pikachu. "Pikachu, use Iron Tail to deflect it!"

"Pii-ka!" Pikachu squealed, leaping up into the air to meet Lucario as its tail began glowing white with energy. It swung around and struck Lucario's bone club with the tail, causing both of them to fall back to the ground in a stalemate.

"Wow. Your Pikachu's really strong, Ash!" Korrina praised, flashing the two of them a smile from across the field.

"Thanks! Your Lucario's not that bad, either!" Ash shot back, meeting her glance with his own.

Serena noticed this, and aside from the initial twinge of jealousy that she felt whenever she saw Ash smiling at another girl (a feeling which she had recently learned to suppress, after a particular encounter involving a girl named Miette), she couldn't help but notice once again that something seemed off about Korrina.

"All right, Pikachu, use Electro Ball!" Ash commanded.

"Lucario, Aura Sphere!" Korrina ordered.

"Pika-pika-chu-PI!" Pikachu cried, channeling its electricity into a single point at the tip of its tail, allowing it to expand into a large ball of energy before flipping forward and launching it at Lucario.

"Rrrr-ruuu!" Lucario roared, collecting energy between its palms before focusing it into one hand and similarly launching it at Pikachu.

The two attacks collided in midair, generating a massive explosion that rocked the entire area, blasting both Pikachu and Lucario with equal force.

"Ugh…I can't see a thing!" Clemont grunted, the entire group having thrown their arms up to block the dust from getting to their eyes.

"Me either!" Bonnie moaned.

"Naaaa!" Dedenne chirped sadly.

Both Ash and Korrina remained silent, merely staring at the battlefield through the arms defiantly. When the smoke finally cleared, both Pikachu and Lucario were still standing, although both appeared to have taken heavy damage.

"All right!" Ash cried happily, clenching his fist and gesturing toward Pikachu. "You ready to finish this up, buddy?"

"Pika pika!" Pikachu answered without hesitation, staring down Lucario with fire in its eyes.

"Wow…" Korrina mused. "They're something else, aren't they, Lucario? I think we're gonna have to use _that _if we want to come out on top of this."

"Rrru ruu." Lucario grunted, nodding back at her in agreement.

"Okay, Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash cried, defaulting once again to his tried-and-true power attack.

Pikachu once again charged up and fired a blast of electricity, but this time Lucario didn't draw a bone club, instead opting to simply stare down the attack as it arced toward it.

"Okay, Lucario!" Korrina announced suddenly in a commanding tone, putting her right hand to an oddly-shaped orb seated in her left glove that Ash had failed to notice before. "Mega Evolve!"

At her words, Lucario raised its left arm, where a bracer with a similar-looking orb was attached to its body. A second later, just as Pikachu's attack was about to connect, the two orbs shot out a brilliant light, and Lucario began glowing, similar to the light of Pokémon evolution, but somewhat more…aggressive.

"Mega Evolve?!" Ash repeated in disbelief.

"Did she just say…?!" Serena cried in shock.

"But that's impossible!" Clemont declared.

Lucario's entire body grew larger within the light, and the Thunderbolt dissipated when it hit the energy field. A second later, the light vanished, with a helix-shape appeared in the air above Lucario as it did, leaving Lucario's Mega Form out in the open for all to see.

Besides being generally larger, most of its fur appeared sharper and pointer, and it was now sporting red tint on its hands and feet. But most different was the look in its eyes – it was a ruthless, aggressive, almost evil glint.

"What do you think of our Mega Evolution, Ash?" Korrina asked, to which Ash could only answer with stunned silence, causing her to giggle in response. "All right, Lucario, let's finish this! Use Bone Rush!"

Lucario instantly dropped to a battle stance and summoned its bone club before charging toward Pikachu, who was still stunned by the Mega Evolution it had just witnessed. Seeing Lucario charging, however, managed to snap Ash out of his daze.

"Pikachu, dodge it, quick!"

"Pika?!" Pikachu grunted, finally recovering from its shock. It didn't have any time to dodge, however, and was hit with the full force of Lucario's Bone Rush slamming into it, sending it flying across the field.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried out.

"Now, use Aura Sphere!" Korrina called out.

"Rrrruuuu!" Lucario roared, letting its bone club dissipate and instead launching a second blast of Aura energy out at Pikachu before it even had a chance to hit the ground.

Pikachu was forced to take the attack head-on, and ended up colliding hard with a tree, knocking it out cold.

"Pikachu is unable to battle…" Clemont declared after a moment, still slightly in awe of Mega Lucario. "…the winner is Korrina and Lucario!"

"All right, Lucario! We did it!" Korrina cried out victoriously. Lucario, however, remained where it was, staring angrily at the fallen Pikachu before it.

"Wow…that Mega Lucario is unbelievably strong." Clemont commented, watching Korrina celebrate her victory.

"Is that the power of Mega Evolution?" Serena said wistfully.

"Lucario?" Korrina said, noticing that it hadn't powered down to its base form yet. At her word, however, Lucario suddenly spun around and glared at her angrily.

"Lucario…?!" Ash said cautiously, noticing that something was wrong right away. He slowly began inching toward it from behind.

A few tension-filled seconds later, Lucario let loose a crazed roar and charged at Korrina in a frenzy.

"L-Lucario!" Korrina cried, stumbling over backward as she tried to back away. A second before he struck her, she managed to hit the orb on her glove again, causing Lucario to freeze in its tracks.

A few moments passed where nobody moved. Maybe nobody even breathed. Everyone stood watching Lucario, wondering if it was going to make another move or not.

Finally, the same light that had enveloped it a few minutes before appeared again, and suddenly, Lucario's appearance returned to normal. It blinked a few times and noticed Korrina mere inches from its face, its own fist outstretched toward her.

"Lucario…" Korrina breathed softly, causing it to fall to the ground and simultaneously diffuse the tension that had been hanging in the air.

"Uh…Korrina…?" Ash asked cautiously a few minutes later, after he had retrieved his injured Pokémon from across the field. "What just happened, exactly? And how come you and Lucario can use Mega Evolution?"

Korrina and Lucario hadn't moved in the entire time that Ash and Pikachu had spent regrouping. Lucario was resting its head on her lap, while she remained seated on the ground herself. She looked over and met Ash's gaze. "I guess I should have told you earlier…but I kinda wanted to see how you'd act if you didn't know. I'm actually the Gym Leader of Shalour City."

The entire group audibly gasped when they heard her.

"What?!" Serena cried.

"The Shalour City Gym Leader?!" Clemont added.

"No way!" Ash finished, while Bonnie just stood there with her mouth open in stunned silence.

Korrina laughed and nodded. "It's true. I left a little while ago because my grandfather told me that it was time for me to go and find Lucarionite for my own Lucario as the Gym Leader here. We were just on our way back into town from our trip, actually."

"Well, that does explain how you and Lucario were able to Mega Evolve…" Clemont said, crossing his arms as he spoke.

"And it explains why you're so strong, too!" Bonnie added happily.

Korrina smiled at Bonnie's praise. "But…it seems like we haven't mastered Mega Evolving yet. So far, every time we've done it, Lucario's ended up going out of control like that, and I don't know how I'm supposed to control it. I thought my grandfather might know how...I was going to ask him when I made it back to the city."

"Yeah, that seems like it'd be a problem." Ash agreed. "I guess Mega Evolving is really hard on the Pokémon that's doing it." He thought things over for a moment. "You know what, Korrina? Why don't we go see your grandfather with you?"

Korrina almost jumped at his words. "Really?"

Ash nodded encouragingly. "Yeah! And then we can help you and Lucario do whatever it is you have to do to learn how to control its Mega Evolution!"

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course!" Ash replied without hesitation. "That's what friends do, right?"

Korrina stared at him in surprise for a moment while Clemont and Bonnie nodded behind him in agreement. "…All right! I'll take you to Shalour City and we can see my grandfather together!"

"Sounds like fun! I can't wait!" Bonnie exclaimed happily.

As the four of them continued talking excitedly about their upcoming plans, Serena maintained the neutral smile she'd been wearing for the last few minutes, but deep down, she still couldn't quiet the growing sense of dread she felt every time she looked at Korrina.

"_Something's not right here…"_

Serena glanced over at Ash, who was smiling and laughing right along with everyone else, before quickly shifting her eyes back to Korrina.

"_Who __**are**__ you?"_

* * *

_Please remember to read and review! Thanks!_


	3. Chapter 3: Cave of Reflections

_Hey everyone, got another update for you today. It looks like I might have to be on a weekly format for this after all, at least for a little while. I keep trying to sit down and write a chapter during the week and it just never happens._

_That being said, I will definitely continue on with this one, as I've already got most of it planned out and I'm only getting more and more excited about it as I continue to iron out the details. I hope you all end up enjoying it as much as I am!_

* * *

The late afternoon sun radiated a warm glow across the sky, having already begun its descent to the horizon by just the slightest bit. Although Ash and company had already made it most of the way to Shalour City before they ran into Korrina, one last obstacle still sat between them and their destination.

"Apparently, this place is called Reflecting Cave…" Clemont commented as the group, now with Korrina in tow, made their way into the cave's mouth. "I've heard of it before, but I've never actually been here myself."

"Yeah, that's right." Korrina confirmed, glancing over at him. "A lot of the walls here naturally reflect light, so it's like a giant cave of mirrors."

"The guide says that the walls have been known to confuse travelers passing through, and occasionally even Pokémon." Serena added, her eyes scanning the text in her guide before nervously shifting her glance to the walls around them. "I think we should be careful in here."

"Well, I don't see any mirrors yet, so I think we should be fine for a while – "Ash began, but trailed off as their path led them into a much larger chamber than the corridor they'd been in previously. The ceiling stretched at least two dozen feet above them, and the room spread out into an extremely large, open area that split off into numerous passages that all seemed to trail off in different directions. The walls and ceiling were covered with fragments of rock that appeared to them to be actual mirrors stuck inside the rocks making up the walls of the cave.

"You were saying?" Korrina chided, giggling as she grinned at his ignorance.

"Whoa…they're everywhere…!" Bonnie said, staring at the room before her in awe as a horde of Woobat flapped across the open air of the chamber.

"…Ehehe…" Ash chuckled nervously in spite of himself. "Maybe Serena's right. We don't wanna get lost in here…"

"There are so many different exits from here." Clemont said, readjusting his glasses as he examined the numerous tunnels that appeared to branch off from the room they were in. "How are we going to find the right one?"

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Korrina answered excitedly, running forward so that she was in front of the rest of them. "I've come through here a few times from both directions, so I know the layout of it pretty well. I can show you guys the way that leads out to Shalour City!"

"Oh, wow, really?" Ash replied, a touch of relief in his voice. "That'd be great!"

"Pika pika!" Pikachu added jovially.

A faint blush appeared on Korrina's face at Ash's words, and her grin grew even wider than it had been before. "Well, come on, then! We'd better get moving if we want to get to town before it gets dark."

Ash nodded and the two of them set off further into the chamber, with Korrina slightly in the lead.

"Wow! Korrina's really smart! And she's even a Gym Leader…I wonder if _she_ could take of Clemont for me?" Bonnie mused, following closely behind Ash and Korrina.

Clemont was about to take off after her, but before he took more than a few steps he stopped, noticing something somber in the air. He turned and saw Serena standing there, a tiny frown present on her face. Her right fist was clasped over her chest as well.

"Serena…?" Clemont began slowly. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh?" Serena jumped, as if noticing Clemont for the first time. "Oh…yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

She took off past him, running to catch up with the others, who were now almost at the opposite end of the chamber. Clemont turned and watched her for a moment before sighing and following after them.

"Are we almost there?" Bonnie moaned.

"Yeah, we should be getting close." Korrina answered encouragingly. Some time had passed since they had entered the cave, and though they had managed to stay on track thanks to Korrina's directions, that hadn't stopped the strange mirrors placed all around the caves to give the group splitting headaches.

"Can't say I'm gonna miss this place too much." Ash commented, rubbing his temple. "If it weren't for Korrina, who knows how long it would've taken us to get out of here."

Korrina beamed at his compliment as the tunnel rounded another corner, putting them directly in front of another mirror panel. The odd thing about the reflections in the cave was that they always seemed to be in a place where they caught other mirror panels, and the reflections would continue infinitely. In addition, there was simply something off about the feeling it gave to look into the panels; it made your head fuzzy and almost seemed as if the mirrors were going to pull you inside of them.

"Aww, I'm sooo tired of this place!" Bonnie yelled angrily upon seeing the mirror around the corner.

"Na-na…" Dedenne agreed sadly. It curled up into a tight ball inside Bonnie's purse.

"To be honest, we're actually pretty lucky." Korrina said. "Usually I run into at least one group of confused and angry Pokémon that's been driven into a frenzy by the effects of the mirrors."

"Really?" Clemont replied inquisitively. "That does seem odd…now that I think about it, we haven't really seen that many Pokémon in here at all."

The group was silent for a moment as they pondered his words. Before any of them could continue the dialogue, however, they heard a peculiar sound from above them that sounded suspiciously like shifting rocks.

"What's that…?" Ash asked worriedly, all of them stopping to look up for the source of the noise. In the near-darkness, it was difficult for them to see the roof of the tunnel.

"You don't think…it's gonna cave in on us?!" Bonnie uttered hastily, growing more frightened by the second.

"No, it shouldn't…" Korrina answered, but there wasn't much assurance in her voice. "Actually, that sounds more like…"

Suddenly, an enormous blanket of what appeared to be large, armored seeds dropped down on top of them, causing Bonnie to scream and the rest of the group to rear back in shock.

"Wh-what are those?!" Bonnie cried.

"It's a nest of Ferroseed!" Korrina answered quickly. "I knew we were getting way too lucky!"

The mob of Ferroseed appeared extremely angry at the group for some reason, and, without giving any of them time to react, they began lobbing themselves forward in attack.

"Aaaah!" Ash cried, narrowly dodging a few of them as they launched themselves at his head. Clemont, and Serena performed a similar maneuver, and Bonnie even threw herself to the ground to protect herself. Korrina, meanwhile, activated the roller-skates in her shoes and evaded the attacks that way.

Ash then turned and faced the Ferroseed he had just dodged. "All right, Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

"Pikaaaa-chuuuuu!" Pikachu squealed, leaping up off Ash's shoulder and firing off its signature electric attack at the group of Pokémon. The bolt made contact with all of them, but they didn't even appear to notice the attack, shrugging it off without so much as a second thought before charging at the group again.

"Thunderbolt didn't work?!" Ash exclaimed in surprise before dodging the second wave of attacks.

"Ferroseed are grass and steel types, remember?" Clemont berated. "Pikachu electric attacks aren't even going to leave a scratch on them!"

"Oh, yeah…you're right…!" Ash grunted angrily, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Come on, guys! We've got to make a run for it!" Korrina urged, looking back to the rest of them for a moment. At that same moment, however, the Ferroseed in front of her decided to attack again, using their Iron Head once again to charge at her, except that this time they aimed for her feet.

"Korrina, watch out!" Bonnie cried, pointing at the charging Ferroseed, but it was too late. Korrina turned and saw them just as they slammed into her skates, knocking her off her feet and destroying her roller skates in the process.

Korrina howled in pain as she was thrown back and to the ground.

"Korrina!" Ash exclaimed angrily.

Serena saw what happened as well, and knew that they had to fight back somehow if they wanted to get out of this situation safely. She reached into her pack and pulled out the one filled Poké Ball she had in her possession. "Fennekin, I choose you!"

"Fennnekin!" Fennekin growled, emerging in a flash of light onto the cave floor. Ash looked over at the two of them with a mix of wonder and surprise.

The Ferroseed surrounding them suddenly tensed up at the emergence of a pure fire-type into their midst. They didn't attack again for a few moments, merely grunting ambiguously as they stared down the group of trainers and Pokémon.

Serena used this time to think of a plan. _"Fennekin can't win against all of them, even if it does have the advantage…especially if there are even more of them up on the ceiling…" _Her eyes narrowed and she suddenly pivoted 180 degrees, pointing in the direction of the cave's exit. "Fennekin, use Flamethrower!"

Fennekin obeyed, turning around and spraying the path before them with a blast of fire, causing the entire group of Ferroseed that had been blocking the way to leap out of the way, leaving the path clear.

"Come on! Let's go!" Serena called, gesturing for the others to follow her as she and Fennekin quickly took off down the path toward the exit.

The others followed suit without any hesitation, with Ash taking Korrina on his back due to her injured feet. The Ferroseed took up the chase quickly, bounding along the walls and beginning to fire off sporadic Pin Missile shots at them.

"Pikachu, try to block them with Iron Tail!" Ash ordered, struggling to keep Korrina hoisted up on his shoulders.

"Pika!" Pikachu answered affirmatively, charging up its tail with energy and using it to parry any blasts that came near Ash or Korrina.

"Fennekin, keep hitting them with Flamethrower!" Serena called, to which Fennekin also obliged, continuing to spray fire at the mob of Pokémon chasing them that actually seemed to be growing larger.

"I don't get it!" Bonnie shouted in despair. "Why are they attacking us?!"

"I told you before, it's the mirrors!" Korrina answered. "Living in this cave causes the Pokémon here to get confused and angry sometimes and they just attack people out of nowhere!"

"Well, why don't they just go and live somewhere else?!" Bonnie squeaked.

"Hey, I think I see the exit!" Ash announced excitedly, pointing to a dim light shining from the end of the corridor.

"Yeah…just a little farther!" Clemont wheezed, barely managing to keep pace with the others.

Pikachu continued watching the Ferroseed nearest to Ash in anticipation of their next Pin Missile, but suddenly its ear perked up and it noticed them behaving oddly. It increased its speed and caught up to Fennekin near the front of their group, attempting to point out the oddity. Fennekin noticed as well.

"Hey, what's wrong, you guys?" Ash asked, looking down at Pikachu and Fennekin.

"Pika pika! Pikachu!" Pikachu explained urgently.

"Fennnekinnn!" Fennekin added.

"Fennekin, too? What's wrong?" Serena inquired, not quite understanding what her Pokémon was trying to say.

"Hey, you guys…" Korrina began slowly, noticing the same thing that Pikachu and Fennekin had. "I think we need to get out of here. Like, right now."

"What? What's wrong?!" Ash asked, getting the sense that something bad was about to happen.

"I think I get what the Pokémon are trying to say…" Korrina explained grimly. "The Ferroseed - They're getting ready to use Explosion!"

Everyone's jaw dropped when they heard her words, and glanced over to the Ferroseed to confirm her suspicion. They seemed to have stopped attacking, almost as if they were building up energy for something.

"But…if this many Pokémon use Explosion at the same time, and in this tight of a space…" Clemont deduced, slowly coming to the same dark conclusion that Pikachu and Fennekin had.

Almost as if on cue, the entire horde that had been chasing them stopped moving and began to shine a brilliant white at the same time, as if they were beginning to evolve.

"W-what if we don't make it out of here - ?!" Serena uttered, but Ash cut her off.

"We're gonna make it!" He answered defiantly.

They lowered their heads and sprinted with all of their might to the cave exit, and just as they passed through the warm and inviting passage leading to the outside, the few dozen Ferroseed lining the cave walls all suddenly let loose their Explosion attack in unison. A deafening boom filled the air as an enormous shockwave launched them out of the cave with all the force of a hurricane.

* * *

_Now, when I first realized that I wanted to do something with Reflection Cave, my mind instantly jumped to the anime episode that featured it. I loved that depiction of it, and played around with doing some adaptation of that here. But I ultimately decided that it would've ended up being mostly a copy of that episode, only with Korrina thrown in, and I didn't want to do that. As close as I like to stick to the anime, I always try to avoid outright copying it, because that's not interesting. The only time I do that is with flashbacks to actual anime events, which I usually try to flesh out in the subtext anyway for whatever point I'm trying to get across by using them._

_Anyway, all that is to say that I know my version of the Cave isn't as interesting as the one in the anime, but I hope you enjoyed it all the same. Please remember to read and review!_


	4. Chapter 4: Hidden Feelings

_Hey guys! In my continuing effort to get these out faster than a week at a time (maybe FIVE DAYS at a time? Oooo...), I've got the next one for you here a bit earlier than usual. I know there's nothing wrong with waiting a while to do them, but at the same time I know I can do them quicker than that. So...yeah._

_Also, I realized that in the last chapter I forgot to add a line break at one point in it where there should have been one. I used to not know how to do those at all on here, as it doesn't read any of the typical * * * breaks or anything that I put into the .doc files, but ever since I learned that you just have to do it manually I always hate it when I forget. It throws off the pacing, in my opinion. But...eh. What can you do?_

_Regardless, I hope you all enjoy this one!_

* * *

"Uuugh…is everyone okay?" Ash grumbled, rubbing his back as he scanned the area for his companions.

"I t-think so…" Clemont stuttered in reply. He had grabbed Bonnie right before the blast had gone off and used his body to shield her from most of it, leaving her mostly unharmed directly underneath Clemont on the ground.

"Pii-kaa…" Pikachu squeaked weakly, attempting to stand on all fours for a moment before its legs gave out, sending it plopping back down to the ground beside Fennekin.

"Kiiin…" Fennekin mewed, in a similar situation as Pikachu.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried out upon seeing his partner sprawled out on the ground. He quickly got to his feet and raced to Pikachu's side. "Are you alright, buddy?"

"Pika…" Pikachu mumbled, attempting to pass off the damage as nothing, causing Ash to smile despite himself.

"Fennekin!" Serena called, rushing over to Fennekin's side as well.

"You guys were both awesome back there." Ash began suddenly, taking Serena off guard by praising both Pikachu and Fennekin simultaneously. "If it weren't for you two, I don't know what would've happened to us. Especially you, Fennekin."

Fennekin shifted its gaze over to Ash curiously, and found that both he and Pikachu were smiling back at it gratefully. Fennekin blushed slightly and looked away.

Serena was about to reply, reinforcing the praise directed toward her Pokémon, but she stopped short when Ash's wide, approving grin shifted from Fennekin to her. "You did great too, Serena! That was really quick thinking, using a Fire-type against all those Ferroseed. Pikachu definitely would've had a hard time on its own."

"Ah…" Serena stumbled, feeling her face heat up at Ash's words. Clemont was about to step in and add to Ash's words, but he noticed Serena's expression and thought better of it. "Thanks, Ash."

Ash beamed at her reply, taking Serena back to that day at summer camp when he had smiled at her while attempting to coax her up off the ground. The expression on his face was almost identical now as it was back then.

Pikachu noticed what was going on and smiled, despite its injuries, and even Fennekin shot a curious side-glance back at Ash.

But then, suddenly, Ash's expression changed completely, finally remembering the one thing they had forgotten about.

"Oh, man, wait a minute – where's Korrina?!"

He turned away from Serena and found Korrina sprawled out on the ground some fifty yards ahead of them. She didn't appear to be moving.

"Korrina!" Ash called out, rushing over to her side at once.

Serena watched him run over to the Gym Leader and felt a twinge of jealousy mixed with fear. She knew it was wrong to think that way of somebody else, especially someone who'd been nothing but to nice to them since they'd run into her – but even so, Serena still couldn't shake off the strange feelings she'd been having around her all day.

Bonnie shot past suddenly, following Ash over to Korrina's side, which made Serena feel a little bit better. Then she suddenly felt a hand touch her shoulder lightly, and she turned to see Clemont standing behind her, an encouraging smile present on his face. He helped her to her feet, and after a moment of silence, Serena smiled back at him, and then ran forward to join their friends.

* * *

The group made it into Shalour City just as the sun was shrinking down over the horizon, and the sky was fading out from orange to black. The Ferroseeds' Explosion had injured her legs and feet even more than their Iron Head had, causing Ash to have to carry her all the way into the city on his back, as Clemont's Clemontic Gear prevented him from offering to assist.

"Are you doing okay, Korrina?" Bonnie asked worriedly, as she had done half-hour since they'd gotten out of the cave. Pikachu was cradled in her arms, as it had been too weak to continue the journey to the city on foot.

"Yeah…I should be fine." Korrina answered slowly. "We just need to get to the Tower of Mastery, where my grandfather is. He should know what to do."

"Hey, Ash?" Clemont began, causing Ash to stop and turn to face him.

"Yeah, Clemont? What's up?"

"Why don't you go on ahead with Korrina while we take the Pokémon over to the Pokémon Center?" Clemont proposed. "Pikachu and Fennekin could really use some help after taking all of those Explosion attacks."

"Huh?" Ash replied, slightly surprised by Clemont's question. He looked over at his injured partner nestled up against Bonnie's chest. He thought it over for a moment, and then smiled. "…Okay!"

Clemont grinned back at him. "All right! Then we'll see you guys at the Tower of Mastery!"

"You take good care of Pikachu, okay, Bonnie?" Ash said, turning to the young girl as he spoke.

"You got it!" Bonnie replied enthusiastically.

They all smiled at each other for a moment, letting the silence hang in the air. Then, Ash turned and took off down the street, making every effort to ensure that Korrina didn't fall in the process.

The remaining three watched them until they disappeared from their sight. Then Clemont turned to go down the street to their right. "That girl is really something, isn't she…" He moaned. "That's what a Gym Leader should be like."

"Don't say that, big brother!" Bonnie protested angrily. "Just because she has a Pokémon that can Mega Evolve…well…that doesn't mean anything! You're just as strong as she is!"

"Maybe…" Clemont sighed. He then looked over and noticed that Serena hadn't said anything in quite a while, and she seemed to merely be following them around while only half-paying attention to what she was actually doing. "What do you think, Serena?"

"Huh?" Serena answered blankly, suddenly snapping out of the trance she'd been in for the last few minutes. "Oh, uh…"

Clemont smiled weakly at her. "You know…if there's something you want to say to Ash, you should just go ahead and tell him."

"What - ?!" Serena stammered, a deep blush appearing on her face as she almost physically recoiled from him. Bonnie came up on the other side of her just then, and smiled up at her knowingly.

"What my big brother means is, boys are really bad with words sometimes." Bonnie explained, giggling to herself as she did. "But that doesn't mean they don't care. They might just not know they do!"

"Uh…" Serena choked out, locking her gaze on the ground as the blush on her face intensified. She could feel the two of them staring at her and smiling. "Guys, I really don't…"

"Oh, it's okay." Clemont assured her. "You don't have to hide it from us."

"Yeah!" Bonnie chimed in giddily. "We already know all about your little crush on Ash!"

"Na-nana!" Dedenne added.

"Y-you – what - ?!" Serena gasped, her delicate bubble of security that she'd built up around her feelings for Ash suddenly bursting with an explosion that she'd swear could rival the Ferroseed horde's.

"That's right. We figured that one out a long time ago." Clemont explained. "The point is, you need to tell him soon before something happens."

"S-something…?" Serena murmured cautiously, still not at all comfortable discussing this with them.

"Well, think about it. First there was that girl Miette, and now Korrina…and who knows how many other girls he's met in his travels." Clemont deduced. After a moment, he seemed to realize the one error in the advice he was giving. "Uh…not that I would know anything about this kind of thing, hehe…"

"Yeah, why are you trying to give her advice anyway, Clemont?" Bonnie chided. "It's not like you're any more experienced than she is!"

"Ehehe…" Clemont chuckled awkwardly, refraining from giving her an answer he didn't have.

Despite the overwhelming embarrassment she felt from having her feeling suddenly thrust out into the open like this, Serena found she couldn't help but smile at her friends as they laughed and poked fun at each other in their attempts to help her. "…Thanks, you two. It means a lot to me."

Clemont and Bonnie both stopped and turned to face her. "Of course we're gonna help you, silly!" Bonnie scolded. "You and Ash are our best friends!"

"That's right." Clemont agreed, nodding at his younger sister.

At their words, Serena couldn't help but blush just a little bit more.

* * *

"…Wow." Ash breathed, staring up at the massive structure before him with awe. "It's enormous…"

"Yep." Korrina agreed weakly. "Just wait 'till you see the inside."

The pair had just made it to the shoreline at the edge of town, where, just across the water, lay the sprawling Tower of Mastery, reaching high up into the clouds. One side was also much taller than the other, which just made the entire structure look that much more mystifying. There were a number of smaller buildings surrounding the base of the tower as well, and the entire area was bordered by a large wall with a gate facing the coastline.

"So, uh…" Ash began slowly, making his way down to the beach, but failing to notice any form of passage linking the coast to the tower. "How are we supposed to get over there?"

"Oh, just take a couple of steps into the water." Korrina answered slyly.

"Huh…?"

Korrina giggled at his confusion. "You'll see."

Ash blinked, and then stepped forward into the shallow water. He stood there awkwardly for a moment, waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly, without warning, the water between them and the tower gate began to roll back out of their way. Ash stood there, staring at what appeared to be the ocean moving out of the way for him for a moment, before Korrina finally interjected. "Is that the coolest thing you've ever seen, or what?"

"Wow…" Ash breathed again, rendered speechless for the second time in less than five minutes. Suddenly, Korrina's weight seemed to come crashing down on his arms, and he sagged for a split-second, almost dropping her in the water. "…Come on. We'd better get you inside."

"…Yeah." Korrina agreed slowly.

Ash managed to hoist her back up and reaffirm his grip on her before continuing forward across the sand bridge that now connected the coast to the tower's entrance.

Once they had made their way up to the front gate, Ash was about to begin climbing the steps leading up past the wall and into the inner courtyard when an older man suddenly came running down out of the gate, meeting them on the steps.

"Korrina! What happened?!" The man cried out in shock upon seeing her being carried on Ash's back. The man was dressed in an unassuming gray sweatsuit, with the Mega Stone crest present on the left side of the shirt.

"Grandfather! It's so good to see you!" Korrina greeted happily.

"Are you all right? Who is this?"

"Oh, right. Grandfather, this is Ash." Korrina explained. "I ran into him and his friends outside Reflecting Cave. He wants to challenge the Gym here!"

"Mm…yes." The man answered, regarding Ash strangely for a moment. "But…Korrina, what happened to your legs?"

He gestured to her legs, which were visibly scarred and injured, especially considering that she was still wearing her broken roller skates.

"Oh…there were just some angry Ferroseed in Reflecting Cave." Korrina admitted. "If it weren't for Ash and his friends, I'm not sure what I would've done."

"What do you mean by that? …Where's Lucario?"

At this, Korrina fell silent. She hadn't wanted to tell her grandfather that she and Lucario still hadn't mastered Mega Evolution. It had been expected that they would learn how to control it by the time she returned.

Ash remembered what had happened during their battle, and stepped in for Korrina. "It was just really tired after I had a battle with it. Korrina wanted to give it a rest, that's all."

The man looked back and forth between Ash and Korrina for a minute before sighing. "Very well. We can talk about your journey later, Korrina. Right now, we should go inside and get your wounds treated."

Ash and Korrina both broke into a grin and nodded at his words.

The man turned away and was about to lead them inside the walls. Just before he did, he looked back at Ash over his shoulder. "By the way, young man…you can call me Gurkinn."

* * *

_I remembered the line breaks this time. Take that, lazy formatting!_

_Also, I have taken it upon myself to stop throwing 'Please R&amp;R' or something similar at the end of every chapter. I never thought it was a big issue, but I understand that it annoys a lot of people, and so I will no longer be doing that. I trust that if you guys really think I'm worth saying something about, then you'll leave something whether I ask you to or not._

_So, hope you all enjoyed! See you next time!_


	5. Chapter 5: Striving for Mastery

_Hey guys! Sorry this one took longer than usual. I've been sick the last few days, and have been just laying around in bed for the most part. I tried to write this a couple of times earlier this week and couldn't get into the mindset because I was feeling too bad. _

_However, it underwent a couple of minor revisions in that time, and I'm really happy with it now. I also had a lot of time to iron out the details of the later story arcs and such, and I really feel like this one is starting to come together really well in my head now. _

_So, at any rate, I hope you all enjoy this one!_

* * *

Once inside the walls surrounding the tower, Ash realized that there were actually a handful of other small buildings nestled around the base of the tower itself. After talking to him for a moment, Gurkinn informed Ash that he would have to leave the tower grounds until Korrina was fully healed, though he did stop to thank Ash for bringing her to him despite her wounded state.

Ash said goodbye to Korrina and began to head back to the mainland. He found that the method for leaving the island was the same for arriving as far as crossing the bay was concerned, and before long, he was back in the city and on his way to the Pokémon Center.

However, before he could even make his way all the way there, he ran into Serena and the others on the street, about a block away from the Center itself.

"Hey, guys. What're you doing out here?" Ash asked. Bonnie had Pikachu clutched against her chest like she was expecting it to escape at any moment.

"Hey, Ash!" Clemont replied as, sure enough, Pikachu leaped down from Bonnie's arms and scrambled up onto Ash's shoulder in no time. "We just finished up at the Pokémon Center and were on our way to the Tower of Mastery to meet up with you…what are _you_ doing here?"

"Hey, buddy!" Ash cooed warmly as Pikachu nuzzled against his cheek. "Oh, yeah. Korrina's grandfather said he was going to take care of her tonight and that we'd have to come back tomorrow…"

"Hmm…I see." Clemont murmured to himself, letting his eyes wander as he mulled over Ash's words. "I suppose that means we're staying at the Pokémon Center tonight…"

"Aww!" Bonnie pouted. "I was hoping we'd get to stay at Korrina's house! It's probably really awesome and right next to the ocean and stuff!"

"Hey, the Pokémon Center's not so bad." Serena reasoned. "Besides, I'm sure Korrina needs some space so she can recover."

"Yeah, she's right, Bonnie." Ash affirmed, smiling down at the young girl sympathetically. "Tell you what: when I beat Korrina in our Gym Battle, I'll ask her to let us stay a night at her house. Okay?"

"Oh, wow, Ash! You mean it?!" Bonnie exclaimed excitedly, looking back up at Ash with stars in her eyes.

"Sure!" Ash beamed.

* * *

The next morning, following their stay at the Pokémon Center, the group quickly made their way back to the Tower of Mastery. Between Ash's excitement at his looming Gym Battle against Korrina, and their concern for Korrina's injuries, there was little that could keep them away at this point. Even Clemont and Bonnie seemed interested in finding out more about Mega Evolution.

"Wait…" Serena began hesitantly as the four of them approached the shoreline at the edge of the city. "That's the Tower of Mastery? Way over there…?"

"How are we supposed to get all the way over there?!" Bonnie moaned, pointing at the large expanse of water separating them from the small island that housed the Tower and its subordinate buildings.

"Oh, that's right. You have to get the water to move out of the way first – like this!" Ash explained excitedly, boldly planting one foot in the shallow water lapping at their feet. A few seconds passed in awkward silence. "Uh…"

"Are you sure that's the way across?" Clemont inquired, adjusting his glasses as he stared at Ash's partially submerged foot in confusion.

"Yeah! I mean…it's what Korrina did when we came here last night."

Suddenly, the water between the beach and the opposite shore parted away to reveal a narrow strip of land connecting the two landmasses. Ash looked across the path in surprise and was met with the sight of Korrina rushing across the bridge toward them.

"I don't believe it…!" Clemont gasped in surprise, staring at the newly-revealed patch of sand in shock.

"Hey, you guys!" Korrina called, coming to join them on the shoreline with a wide grin on her face.

"Hey, Korrina…" Ash replied slowly. "Hey, were you the one that opened the pathway just now? I tried to do it like you did last night…but I don't think it worked…"

"Oh! Yeah, that was me." Korrina answered, chuckling at him apologetically. "I guess I forgot to mention it to you last night – there's a secret to making it appear, and only members of my family know what it is."

"Wow! That's so cool!" Bonnie exclaimed. "It's like a super secret password to get into the Gym!"

"Yeah, that's one way of putting it." Korrina agreed, smiling down at her.

"Anyway, Korrina, how are your legs doing? Did Gurkinn get you all fixed up?" Ash asked her.

"Mostly…I guess it's still gonna take a few more days to heal completely." Korrina answered, pointing down at her legs, which were covered with bandages below the knees. "It hurts a little to walk around, but it's nothing I can't handle. I'm gonna need to get a new pair of skates, too…"

"Aw, that's too bad!" Bonnie said sympathetically. "I'm sorry we broke your skates."

"No, it's not your fault!" Korrina replied at once. "In fact, I'm really glad you guys were there…" Korrina trailed off, her eyes drifting over to Ash before continuing. "Who knows what would've happened if I'd been in there by myself."

Bonnie and Clemont smiled at her as if to say 'no big deal', but Serena avoided meeting her gaze.

"So…what do you say to having our Gym Battle now?" Ash challenged, a fiery, blazing look appearing in his eyes.

"Pika pika!" Pikachu added.

"Oh, yeah…about that…" Korrina began slowly. "Grandfather told me that I can't accept any Gym challenges until me and Lucario can master our Mega Evolution."

"Oh, wow…" Ash replied sadly.

"Pika-chu…" Pikachu commented, its ears drooping in accordance with the shift in mood.

"Yeah…he said that Mega Evolution has been a tradition of the Shalour City Gym for generations, and now that I've acquired a Mega Stone of my own, I don't have any business accepting challenges until I'm able to properly use it."

"That's too bad…" Clemont remarked solemnly.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Ash exclaimed, perking up suddenly. "Why don't we just help you and Lucario train?"

"What?" Korrina replied in surprise. "You mean…you'd do that for us?"

"Of course!" Ash answered encouragingly. "Me and Pikachu already battled you guys once, and we saw Lucario when it went crazy in its Mega Evolution. I'm sure we can help you two to get control of it somehow!"

"And there's us, too!" Bonnie added happily.

"Sure! We'd be happy to help you and Lucario master Mega Evolution." Clemont affirmed.

"Na na na!" Dedenne chirped.

"…Thanks, you guys!" Korrina remarked gratefully after a moment, appearing to bravely be holding back tears. "I know a place just outside the north side of town. Me and Lucario used to always train there when we were younger." She ran past them and back towards the city, turning and gesturing for them to follow after a moment. "Come on! I'll show you the way!"

Clemont and Bonnie ran after her without hesitation, and Ash was about to follow when he finally noticed that Serena had been silent ever since they met up with Korrina. He turned and shot her a warm, inviting glance. "Aren't you coming too, Serena?"

She smiled back at him despite herself. "No thanks. I…noticed a few places in the city last night that I really wanted to check out today."

"Are you sure…?" Ash asked considerately, faintly sensing that something wasn't right with Serena's tone of voice.

Serena maintained her slightly somber smile for a moment before brightening up. "Yeah, it's fine! You guys go and help Korrina out! I'll meet up with you later."

"Well…" Ash trailed off, thinking it over for a moment before agreeing. "Okay! Then I guess we'll see you later!"

He waved at her and ran off to join Korrina and the others.

She watched him leave and couldn't help but clench her fists. She remained there for a few silent moments before sighing to herself and beginning to make her own way back into town.

* * *

"_Ugh…what's wrong with me?"_ Serena thought to herself barely half an hour later, as she found herself aimlessly perusing the various shops lining Shalour City's streets – or rather, sparing them one or two glances as she walked by before continuing on to the next one. _"Why didn't I just go with them…?"_

Without really telling anyone about it, including herself, she had subconsciously come to the conclusion the night before that, from her point of view, at least, something was definitely off about Korrina and the way she'd been acting. But at the same time, a small part of Serena's brain kept telling her that it was perfectly normal behavior and that she shouldn't be so wary of someone they'd just met, who'd so far given them little to no reason to suspect her of doing anything wrong.

"_But still…" _Even with that being the case, the way she kept trying to act extra friendly around Ash especially seemed odd to her, and she was at least partially convinced that it wasn't simply because of her own feelings for him.

As she was walking through the streets, mentally grappling with all of this in silence, she suddenly noticed that many of the people around her seemed to be backing away from the direction she was heading. A moment or two later, they all began to run away, but it wasn't until Serena heard the angry battle cry that she finally snapped out of her trance and looked up.

"AGGGGRRRROOOOOOONNNNN!"

Her head shot up in an instant, and she was met with the sight of a large, bipedal, seemingly armored steel-gray Pokémon rounding the corner and stampeding down the street, coming directly toward her. Everyone around her was already getting out of the way, but Serena froze up instead, locking eyes with the angry creature as it barreled toward her.

Serena's brain finally kicked in at the last second and she dove out of its way as it rampaged past her, her hat flying off in the process. Something about her must have piqued the Pokémon's interest, however, and it stopped, turning on a dime to redirect its attention specifically toward her. It reared back and prepared to throw a punch at her –

"Aggron, STOP!"

A stern, commanding male voice rang through the street, and Aggron froze, its rage-filled eyes suddenly becoming strained, almost as if it were in pain. A second later, the same aura that Serena had seen cover Korrina's Lucario when it battled Ash engulfed it, and much of its bulky armor seemed to disappear. When the aura dissipated, it looked quite a bit slimmer than it had originally, and it also appeared exhausted by the experience. It collapsed to the ground at her feet.

"What am I gonna do with you…?" The male voice spoke again, and Serena looked around and saw a boy coming toward her from the same area that the Aggron had appeared from. He looked maybe a year or two older than her, and was wearing a bright gray, almost silver long-sleeved jacket, which was hanging open unzipped over a black t-shirt.

"Uh…is this Pokémon yours?" Serena asked awkwardly as she got back to her feet.

"Yeah, unfortunately." The boy answered, shooting her an apologetic smile as he approached the two of them. "I'm Seth, and you've already met Aggron."

"Hmm…" Serena murmured, pulling out her Pokédex tablet and pointing it at the collapsed behemoth.

"_Aggron, the Iron Armor Pokémon. Aggron are able to dig through solid bedrock using their iron horns, and frequently claim entire mountains as their own territory."_

"Hey…that thing your Aggron did…" Serena began slowly, stowing her Pokédex back in her bag as she did. "That was Mega Evolution, wasn't it?"

"Guilty as charged." Seth admitted, brandishing the black bracelet on his left wrist. Embedded in it was a multicolored stone that looked similar to the one Korrina stored in her glove. Serena briefly examined Aggron and found another stone, silver this time, lodged in the armor on its left arm. "Although, as you can tell, we're not very good at it yet."

"Oh, that's okay." Serena replied, giggling at him a little. "I know someone else who has a Mega Stone, and they're not very good at it yet, either."

"Really?" Seth replied in genuine surprise. "Well, I guess that makes us feel a little bit better. Huh, Aggron?"

He nudged his Pokémon gently with his foot, prompting Aggron to merely grunt in reply.

"All right, big guy…go ahead and take a rest." Seth sighed, producing a Poke Ball from inside his coat and recalling Aggron. "Say…I never got your name, did I?" He regarded Serena with a peculiar sort of interest.

"Oh…I'm Serena. Nice to meet you!"

"Serena?" Seth echoed, as if testing out the name. He looked around for a moment and found her pink hat on the ground a few yards away. "Well then, Serena, what do you say I buy the two of us some lunch to make up for all this?" He went and retrieved her hat as he spoke, holding it out to her when he finished. "It's the least I can do."

"Huh…?" Serena breathed in reply. Though it was technically the first time she'd been asked on a date, she wasn't so dense that she couldn't tell when it was happening right in front of her. "Um…"

"Oh, come on." Seth prodded, shooting her a charming grin. "I promise I'm a lot nicer than my Aggron is."

Serena couldn't help but laugh at his comment. "…All right." Serena agreed a moment later, figuring that it might be a decent way to get her mind off of things, at the very least. She accepted her hat back from him and replaced it on her head. "Sure! Let's go."

Seth winked back at her happily. "Shall we, then?"

* * *

"Lucario, use Power-Up Punch!"

"Pikachu, counter it with Iron Tail!"

Mega Lucario and Pikachu's attacks both slammed into each other in a stalemate. As they both drew back and regarded the other, Lucario's body briefly shown with an orange aura, indicating its rising power level.

"Wow! Mega Lucario's really strong, isn't it, big brother?" Bonnie remarked, awestruck that it was keeping pace with Pikachu.

"Yeah, but don't write off Pikachu just yet." Clemont answered confidently. "When someone beats Ash in a battle, he always makes sure that it doesn't happen a second time."

"Yeah, you're right!" Bonnie agreed giddily. "I can't wait until they actually have their Gym Battle!"

"Remember, Lucario!" Korrina called out. "You've got to keep control of your aura, like Grandfather told us!"

"Rrruu!" Lucario growled in affirmation.

"Pikachu, use Electro Ball!" Ash ordered.

"Pii-kkaaa-chuuu!" Pikachu cried, flipping forward and firing off its attack with pinpoint accuracy.

"Lucario, Aura Sphere!"

"RRRA!" Lucario grunted, sending its own attack directly into Pikachu's, causing the two blasts to collide in midair, generating a massive explosion.

"Keep your eyes open, buddy!" Ash warned, throwing a hand up to block the smoke from his face.

"Pika!" Pikachu called back, not taking its eyes off the cloud of smoke that now covered the battlefield.

Lucario maintained its position as well, sensing Pikachu's position through the smoke with its aura as it awaited Korrina's command. In an instant, however, it lost its composure, as if something had snapped in its mind. Its eyes narrowed and dilated and focused intensely on the aura it sensed from Ash and Pikachu.

"All right, Lucario! Use Bone Rush, now!" Korrina cried, but she quickly sensed that something was wrong. A moment passed and Lucario didn't react. "…Lucario?"

"Rrrrrr!" Lucario growled darkly at her, sparing her a one second glance before dashing forward with such blistering speed that the smoke almost entirely dissipated from the force of its movement.

"Lucario, stop - !"

Ash and Pikachu had a split-second to regard Lucario with shock before Pikachu was sent flying out of the field and against a nearby tree by Lucario's Power-Up Punch, which also ended up giving it a second power boost in the following moment.

"Pikachu!"

Lucario didn't waste any time following up, instantly charging up an Aura Sphere before Pikachu even had time to fall to the ground.

"Lucario!" Korrina cried desperately, her hand moving to the Key Stone embedded in her left glove.

"Pikachu, watch out!"

Lucario didn't give it time to react, and closed the gap between itself and Pikachu in an instant, summoning its bone club in the process. A second before the Bone Rush attack connected, however, it froze up suddenly, and the club vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Lucario moaned in agony for a moment, and once the telltale rainbow-colored aura came and went, normal Lucario fell to the ground in exhaustion, with sweat pouring from its face.

"Pikachu! Are you all right?!" Ash cried out, running over to his partner's side. Pikachu looked up at him from the ground and smiled.

"Pikaa…"

Ash smiled back before turning to Korrina sadly. "I guess we've still got some work to do, huh?"

Korrina frowned and looked away. "I'm sorry, Ash."

"No, it's alright. We agreed to help you out, after all. Right, buddy?"

"Pika-chaa!" Pikachu agreed, holding one arm up to show its support.

"I don't think anybody expected Lucario to get it right on the first try. We've just got to keep working at it until we find a way for it to maintain control." Clemont explained encouragingly.

"…Thanks, you guys." Korrina replied, smiling at them gratefully.

However, in the next few moments, Ash turned his back to her to regard Pikachu, and Clemont and Bonnie went over to his side to do the same. And in those few short moments, Korrina eyed Ash and Pikachu darkly, lightly stroking the edges of her Key Stone as she did so.

* * *

_Ohhh noo. Things are happening at last. I almost don't believe it. _

_Hope you guys enjoyed! See you next time!_


	6. Chapter 6: Trust Broken, Trust Forged

_Hey everyone! I have to say that I'm really sorry it's been like...two weeks since I've updated this. I've had a couple of things going on personally, plus my midterms have started up...and also I've just been sucked in by a number of animes over the last few weeks, leading to me being very lazy when it comes to updating this._

_I still plan to keep going with this, so don't worry about that. This time just happened to take a lot longer, so I apologize! I hope you all enjoy regardless!_

* * *

"So you're from Vaniville Town, huh?" Seth asked, taking a bite out of his chicken bun as he did so. "I haven't heard much about that place, honestly."

"That's what a lot of people say." Serena admitted, smiling across the table at him sympathetically. Seth had taken the two of them to an outdoor café near the outside of town from which both the bay connecting to the Tower of Mastery and the roads leading further into the city were visible.

"Well, it's got to at least be more interesting than Dewford Town." Seth joked, referring to his own home town.

"That's right; you mentioned you were from Hoenn, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Dewford's on an island to the south of the mainland, though. Unless you want to challenge the Gym there, or you really like waves and sand, there's not really much there."

The two continued eating in silence for a few moments. As unsure as Serena had been about accepting his invitation at first, she had to admit that she felt oddly at ease with him, which was especially refreshing considering everything that had been going on with Korrina for the past couple of days.

"So, Serena!" Seth proclaimed defiantly, grinning at her with the same unusual charm that he'd directed at her when he first asked her out. "What brings a pretty young trainer like you all the way out to Shalour City? You here to challenge the Gym, too?"

"'Young'?" Serena repeated, chuckling at his attempt to sound even older than her than he already was. "You're not even that much older than I am!"

"Really…?" Seth shot back jokingly, holding up his finger pointedly. "Are you sure about that?"

"Well…I mean…I hope you're not, or else it would sound kind of weird to call this a date, wouldn't it?"

Seth stared at her for a second before smiling at her warmly. "I never said it was a date, you know."

Serena opened her mouth to respond, but she couldn't find her voice, and was instead reduced to staring back at him as a light blush formed on her face. She had to admit, he wasn't bad looking, and there was something about him that made her feel safe and at ease.

And yet…

"You're right." Serena admitted after what seemed like an eternity of silence between the two of them. She brushed a strand out of her face before continuing. "Look…Seth…I've got to be honest with you. I'm not actually travelling all the way out here all by myself."

Seth blinked, his smile not wavering. "Oh, yeah? You've got some friends with you?"

"Yeah…a few." Serena replied honestly, trying her best to choose her words carefully. "Actually, you might know of a couple of them: the Lumiose City Gym Leader, Clemont, and his little sister Bonnie."

Seth thought for a moment before responding. "Wait, that's right! The Lumiose Gym was being run by a robot the last time I checked. Something about the Gym Leader being away on a trip for a while, I think…" He focused his gaze back on Serena. "You mean he's travelling around with you? His little sister, too?"

"Yeah, that's right." Serena answered, nodding.

"That's gotta be pretty cool, getting to run all around the place with a Gym Leader." Seth admitted. "So that's it? Just you and the two of them?"

Serena's face fell. "Well…"

Seth blinked again, watching her expression intently. Finally, when she maintained her silence, he sighed in apparent realization. "Hey, Serena, it's all right. I think I get what you're trying to say."

"Wh-what…?" Serena shot back, her eyes shooting up to meet his as the blush on her face intensified.

Seth laughed, and Serena had to admire how he was able to maintain his calm and collected demeanor throughout their entire conversation so far. "Girls only say stuff like that to me for one reason, you know. The last person you're travelling around with…he's someone important to you, isn't he?"

Serena's eyes widened, shocked at how quickly he had figured it out. "Y-yeah. His name's Ash. I met him a long time ago, actually, when we were just kids…" Serena began, smiling to herself as she briefly indulged herself in those old memories, before realizing who it was that she was talking to. "…I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm telling you this…"

Seth shook his head. "Why are you sorry? I asked, after all." He stood up from their table and went over to put his hands on Serena's shoulders. "You've known him since you were kids, huh? I don't see how I can compete with that."

"Seth…"

"What're you giving me that look for?" Seth chuckled, not seeming to be in the least bit bothered by being essentially shot down after having already taken Serena out for lunch. "We had fun, didn't we? If I remember right, the only thing I told you when I asked you out was that I was making up for my clumsy Aggron."

"…Yeah, I guess you're right." Serena agreed, smiling up at him gratefully before climbing to her feet herself. "You're a pretty nice guy, you know."

"Aw, come on. Now you're gonna make _me_ blush!" Seth chided. "Anyway…thanks for a fun afternoon. I guess I should let you get back to your friends now."

"Uh…"

Seth smiled at her understandably. "It's okay. I already told you, don't worry about it. You just remember to tell Ash he's a lucky guy!" He flashed her a thumbs-up sign before waving goodbye to her and beginning to walk away.

Serena stood there silently, watching him leave, feeling something strange in her chest urging her forward. It was a little different than she felt when she was around Ash, not quite as intense, but distracting all the same. Had it been anyone else, she would have told them goodbye and left to rejoin Ash and her other friends without a second thought, but something about Seth was different. She felt like she could trust him. She _wanted_ to trust him.

And so, driven onward by these strange new feelings swirling around in her head, she reached out toward him a moment later and did something that surprised him just as much as it did her.

"Seth, wait!"

* * *

Later that afternoon, in a clear patch on the north side of town, Ash and Korrina were still training with each other, with Clemont and Bonnie playing spectator to the intense practice session.

"Froakie, use Water Pulse!"

"Lucario, Aura Sphere!"

The two spheres of energy collided with each other in midair and exploded, causing a stalemate. However, in the next moment Lucario dived through the resulting smoke, catching Froakie off-guard, but Ash was prepared for this move.

"All right, Froakie!" Ash called out, grinning. "Use Water Pulse again!"

"Power-Up Punch, Lucario!"

Froakie jumped back and fired off a second blast of energy, which slammed into Lucario almost point-blank. Despite the damage, however, Lucario did not falter, and continued forward with its attack, slamming its shimmering fist into Froakie and sending the small Bubble Frog Pokémon flying back across the clearing.

"Froakie!" Ash called out, as Lucario returned to its smiling Trainer's side.

"You thought you were ready for us that time, didn't you?" Korrina remarked. "You're not the only one with a few tricks up your sleeve, Ash!"

"Are you okay, Froakie?" Ash inquired gently, kneeling down to support his wounded Pokémon, who had clearly lost the battle at this point. "You did great out there…why don't you take a nice, long rest?"

Ash recalled Froakie into its Poke Ball before returning to his feet and turning back to Korrina. "Man, you and Lucario are something else. No wonder you're the Gym Leader here."

Korrina smiled back at him confidently. "Yep, that's right. Now if we could only master Mega Evolution…"

"Don't worry, Korrina." Clemont spoke up, walking over closer to her and Ash, along with Bonnie. "I'm sure you two will get it in no time."

After their problematic first battle with Mega Lucario earlier in the day, they had decided to simply train Lucario without using up all of its energy Mega Evolving it over and over again, and see if that had any effect on it. Korrina had mentioned that a large portion of Lucario's mastery over the advanced form relied on controlling its aura, anyway, which it could work on in its normal form as well as its Mega Form.

And so they had been working on that for the last few hours, now, with Lucario battling all of Ash's Pokémon consecutively. Froakie was Ash's last Pokémon, barring Pikachu, who had been resting with Bonnie ever since it battled Mega Lucario, and appeared to be back at battling strength now. Lucario, on the other hand, had yet to be defeated by any of Ash's combatants.

"Wow, Lucario looks really tired!" Bonnie remarked, noticing the copious amounts of sweat pouring from Lucario's body, in addition to its heavy breathing. "It must be totally worn out after battling for so long without stopping…"

Korrina looked at her partner sympathetically. "You've been doing great, Lucario. You want to take a break for a while?"

"Rrru…" Lucario grunted in reply. Korrina smiled back at it before turning her gaze to the others.

"Guess we're taking a break, then." She looked over to Clemont and Bonnie. "Hey, how about you guys head back into town and see if you can pick us up something to drink?"

Clemont looked back at her with a slightly incredulous glint in his eye. "Just me and Bonnie…?"

"Pika?" Pikachu added, equally confused by Korrina's sudden request.

"Please?" Korrina pleaded, clasping her hands together in front of her, almost as if she were begging them. "There's kind of something I wanted to talk to Ash about…you know, just for a minute."

Clemont and Bonnie shot each other a confused but not entirely surprised look. "Oh…all right then." Clemont answered hesitantly. "Come on, Bonnie, let's go."

The two of them hurriedly shuffled past Ash, with Pikachu leaving Bonnie's side and returning to Ash's along the way. Clemont wanted to stop and say something to Ash about Serena before leaving, but he couldn't think of a discreet way to do it, and especially not in a way that Ash would actually understand, so he was instead forced to leave the matter be.

Ash watched the two of them run off down the hill toward town before looking back to Korrina. "Something you wanted to talk to me about…?"

Korrina met his gaze and smiled, but something seemed off about it this time, even to Ash. "Yeah, that's right. It's not really a big deal or anything, but…"

"What? What is it?"

She looked away from him for a moment, almost seeming to be blushing, before her hand idly and covertly made its way to the Key Stone on her glove. She lightly ran her fingers over it as she met Ash's gaze again. "…I was just hoping you'd let me and Lucario battle you one last time."

Ash blinked, not fully grasping the meaning of what she'd said. "What…?"

Korrina grinned wickedly and suddenly activated her Key Stone, causing both Ash and Pikachu to physically jump back in shock.

"Lucario, Mega Evolve!"

* * *

After stopping Seth outside of the café they had eaten at, Serena quickly, albeit awkwardly, explained to him that Ash didn't actually know anything about how she felt about him, and that even after they'd been travelling together for so long she still felt uncomfortable about talking to him about it. After essentially ending up asking him for advice on the matter, the two of them ended up going window shopping through a bunch of stores in town whilst discussing it, amongst other arbitrarily random topics of discussion as well.

"So, in conclusion…" Seth announced melodramatically as the two of them emerged from a souvenir shop. "You think that Korrina, the Gym Leader of Shalour City, has a crush on Ash just like you do?"

Serena blushed despite herself, but her voice remained steady. "Yeah. And…well, Ash just seems to like being around her. They get along so well…I don't know. Is it wrong if I say I'm jealous?"

"Of course not. Why wouldn't you be jealous?" Seth assured her. "But just because he's acting friendly around her doesn't mean anything. I'm sure if you just told Ash how you feel…"

"That's the same thing Clemont and Bonnie told me…" Serena sighed.

"Well, maybe you should listen to them." Seth prodded her, once again shooting her that strangely charming smile that she'd learned to expect from him.

The two of them continued walking down the street in silence for a moment as Serena allowed herself to process everything that she'd been told.

"Hey, Seth…thanks."

"What?"

"Thanks for talking to me today. I think it helped just to get somebody else's opinion on all this. And…it really was fun, too." Serena said, smiling warmly at him.

"No problem. As long as we're friends now, I've got no complaints." Seth replied jokingly.

"Yeah. We're friends." Serena affirmed, chuckling at him. She continued thinking things over for a minute before continuing. "Hey, you know what? Why don't you come with me and meet Ash? They should be just outside of town."

"Really?" Seth replied, taking a moment of his own to think about it. "…Yeah, okay. Sounds good! Should be fun to finally meet this guy you keep going on about."

The two of them shared a laugh, after which Serena took the lead, guiding Seth to the spot on the outskirts of the city that Korrina had told her about when they'd split up.

By the time they made it to the edge of town, the afternoon was already drooping low in the sky. She led them down the road a bit further until she found the distinctive silhouettes of Korrina and Lucario etched against the horizon off in a clearing, away from the main path.

"There!" Korrina called out, pointing to the Gym Leader and her partner, across from which was Ash and Pikachu. Their position seemed to indicate that they were battling, or about to, at least. She was just about to call out Ash's name, when Korrina cut her off with a cry of her own.

"Lucario, Mega Evolve!"

* * *

_Hope you guys enjoyed this one! You certainly had to wait long enough for it. Hopefully next time won't be as long of a wait. _


	7. Chapter 7: Torn Apart

_Hey everyone! Still a bit late on getting these out, I know. Stuff continues to be going on with my life as of late. Sorry again for the delayed updates. Hopefully I should be back on a regular schedule with these within a couple weeks or so._

_As usual, I hope you all enjoy! _

* * *

"Lucario, Mega Evolve!"

At Korrina's words, Lucario instantly became enveloped in the telltale rainbow-colored glow that Ash had come to learn signified Mega Evolution.

"Pii-ka?!" Pikachu exclaimed in surprise, recoiling in shock as it watched Mega Lucario emerge from the aura a few moments later.

"K-Korrina?!" Ash stammered, his brain working overtime in a desperate attempt to fit the pieces together in his head. "What's going on?! What do you mean, last battle?"

"You heard me." Korrina replied wickedly. Some semblance of her former jubilance seemed to still be present, though now it was almost as if it were a twisted form of its former glory. "Me and Lucario are going to beat you here, and then we're going to take the two of you back to – " She stopped a moment, seeming to catch herself and think for a second before going on. "Oh, wait, I can't tell you about that just yet! But anyway, don't worry too much about it. It'll be fun, trust me!"

Despite her smile, Ash was sure that whatever it was she was talking about, he most certainly was not about to trust her words. "I don't think so. Pikachu and I aren't going anywhere!"

"Piiika!" Pikachu growled in affirmation.

Korrina chuckled to herself. "Oh, I was just _waiting_ for you to say that!" She gestured forward toward Pikachu. "Lucario, let's go! Power-Up Punch!"

"Rrrru!" Lucario grunted, charging forward in a flash.

Ash tensed, watching Mega Lucario charging toward them and prepared to fight back. However, before he could even call out a command to Pikachu –

"Aggron, Iron Defense!"

A blinding surge of white light surged into view between Lucario and Pikachu, quickly taking form as what Ash recognized as an Aggron. Without wasting a second, it raised its arms defensively and took the brunt of Lucario's attack head-on.

"What - ?" Ash looked to his right across the clearing and was met with the sight of Serena and a guy he didn't recognize sprinting toward him. "Serena!"

"Oh? What's this?" Korrina remarked with genuine interest as her Lucario withdrew to her side, its eyes locked on Aggron.

"Ash! Pikachu!" Serena cried as her and Seth drew closer to him. "Are you two okay? What's going on?"

"I was about to ask you that." Ash answered, his gaze drifting over to Seth. "Who're you?"

"I'm Seth, I'm a friend of Serena's." Seth explained quickly. "We can catch up with each other later."

Ash hesitated for a second before nodding in agreement. The three of them turned toward Korrina defiantly.

"Korrina, what's going on? Why did you just attack Ash out of the blue like that?!" Serena demanded.

"Well…I was hoping to get away without any of you noticing…" Korrina answered, seeming to be talking more to herself than anyone else. "But I guess it doesn't really matter now. Hey, you!" She called out, pointing across the clearing at Seth. "This Aggron is yours, right? You wanna find out how tough it is?"

"Oh, don't worry. I've got a pretty good idea already." Seth shot back, his voice brimming with confidence without crossing the line into arrogance.

Korrina grinned at his words. "Lucario, use Bone Rush!"

"Aggron, Head Smash!"

Aggron suddenly broke into a sprint as its head plate began to glow a brilliant white. It met Lucario's bone club head-on, merely lowering its head and plowing forward as the Aura Pokémon swung its weapon. The force from the attack shattered the bone club instantly and sent Lucario flying back across the clearing and straight into a tree.

"Wow, you're not bad." Korrina chuckled as Lucario picked itself back up in no time and got back into a battle stance. "Ready for some more, Lucario? Jump above it and use Power-Up Punch!"

"Use Superpower, Aggron!"

"Hey, uh, Seth?" Ash began slowly, trying to remember his name as he spoke. "Are you sure you can take her alone? Why don't I get Pikachu to – "

Ash was cut off by the sound of the shockwave created when Aggron, who was now sporting a glowing blue aura around its entire body, slammed its fist into Lucario's as it descended from the sky above it. The two punches met in midair with such force that Ash was surprised that the nearby trees weren't uprooted.

"…help…" Ash finished rather lamely. Seth glanced back over his shoulder and shot Ash a thumbs-up.

"Don't worry about it. Me and Aggron can handle this." He grinned at Ash before turning his attention back to the battle.

"Uh…" Ash mumbled, unsure of how to respond, or if he should even respond at all. He looked over at Serena, but she was smiling back at him knowingly.

"Trust me, Ash. I think we can leave this one to Seth." She turned her attention to the battlefield for a moment before frowning, as if he she had just remembered something important. "But you know…something doesn't seem right about this. And I don't just mean how Korrina's acting."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…think about it. Weren't those two having trouble controlling their Mega Evolution before?"

Ash pondered her words for a moment, watching Lucario trade blows with Aggron. "Yeah…you're right. How did they learn how to control it all of a sudden?"

"Pika pika…" Pikachu mumbled warily.

"I don't know. Maybe we can get some answers after this battle…"

As Aggron and Lucario's battle wore on, however, it became increasingly apparent that despite Aggron's strength, Lucario was simply too quick, and with every Power-Up Punch it landed, it grew that little bit stronger. Before too long, Seth could tell that Aggron was beginning to lose ground.

"I've gotta say, you're a lot better than I thought you'd be!" Korrina conceded after Lucario landed yet another Power-Up Punch, this one bringing Aggron physically down to one knee. "But you can't really compete with Mega Evolution, no matter how good you might be."

Seth's concerned frown suddenly shifted into a sly grin at her words. "You might have point there, you know."

Korrina blinked, not understanding his words. "Lucario, let's finish it! Use Bone Rush!" She called out a moment later, dismissing his statement as nothing important.

Seth's smile widened as Lucario summoned its ethereal weapon and charged across the clearing to deliver the final blow to Aggron.

"I guess it's about time we show you…" Seth began, slowly raising his left arm to allow his sleeve to fall back and reveal the black Mega Ring hanging off of his wrist. "…what we can really do."

Korrina's brain registered what the accessory was almost immediately, but before she could say anything, Seth cut her off prematurely with a statement she'd only ever heard her own family members utter.

"Aggron, Mega Evolve!"

Ash audibly gasped as Aggron became enveloped in the same warm rainbow-like aura that had surrounded Lucario only a few minutes prior. Lucario's attack slammed into the energy field and bounced off harmlessly, allowing Aggron to complete its transformation untouched.

"What…" Korrina trailed off, visibly aghast for the first time since Ash had met her as she stared at Mega Aggron emerging from the evolutionary field. "You…how did you get a Key Stone?!"

Seth beamed triumphantly at her as Aggron loosed a deafening battle cry. "Guess that's for me to know and you to find out, huh?"

Korrina gritted her teeth angrily. "Well…it doesn't matter anyway. Come on, Lucario, let's show them our ace in the hole! Use Aura Sphere!"

Even Ash knew that Aura Sphere against an Aggron should, by all intents and purposes, finish it off in one or two shots, and that was without factoring in Aggron's prior damage. "Seth - !"

Seth gestured for Ash to stay back. "I told you, we can handle this. Aggron, get ready!"

Aggron grunted in reply and appeared to tense up, spreading its legs and arms apart as if to catch something roughly its own size. Lucario, meanwhile, had finishing charging and was just finishing shooting off the Aura Sphere.

Time seemed to slow as the blueish-white ball of energy streaked across the clearing, heading straight for Aggron's chest. A second before it hit, Seth spoke up again. "Metal Burst, now!"

Korrina's eyes widened as the Aura Sphere attack, instead of slamming into Aggron's armor as it should have, was instead seemingly absorbed as Aggron began generating a white aura around its entire body. A moment or two later, its mouth opened and the aura converged there, sending a massive blast of white energy surging across the field toward Lucario, who appeared to be just as shocked as its trainer.

A titanic explosion rocked the entire clearing, blinding everyone present with a cloud of smoke. "Lucario - !" Korrina cried out through the dust, gritting her teeth before silently deciding to take a chance.

"Oh, man!" Ash exclaimed, too taken aback by the sudden turnaround to even be excited about it. "That was crazy!"

"I told you we could trust him!" Serena chided, smiling over at Ash through the smoke.

Seth turned and smiled at their words as well. The next second, however, he heard something moving in the smoke, and turned back to the battlefield only to see –

Seth gasped and recoiled in shock as Lucario, now powered down to its original state, streaked past him in a second, using the smoke cloud for cover. It zipped past everyone and swiped Pikachu from the ground before disappearing back into the cloud of dust.

"Huh – what – " Ash stammered, attempting to register what had just happened. "Hey – PIKACHU!"

"Was that Lucario?!" Serena said, squinting through the smoke as it gradually began to dissipate. "It was so fast!"

"To be honest, I wanted you to come with us, too, Ash!" Korrina's voice echoed through the area. "But I guess there's always next time, right? See you guys later!"

"Hey! Korrina! Get back here!" Ash roared angrily, taking off in the direction of where she'd been standing before the smoke appeared. "KORRINA!"

"Ash, wait!" Serena urged, reaching out to stop him as the dust cloud finally dissipated into the wind.

The clearing was empty, save for the three of them and Aggron, who'd also taken the liberty of powering down to its original form just as Lucario had. Korrina, Lucario, and Pikachu were nowhere in sight.

"Let go - I've gotta go after them - !" Ash insisted, fighting against Serena's grip.

"Ash, wait – you can't just run off like that – we've got no idea where she could've gone!"

"I said let me go!"

Seth watched the two of them solemnly as he walked over and patted Aggron on the head in thanks. Aggron grunted sadly, both of them aware of the gravity of what had just happened.

"Ash…I'm sorry. This is all our fault." Seth admitted.

"Rrrnnn…" Aggron mumbled in agreement.

"No, it's – not – it's – Korrina's – and if – Serena – would just – let – me – GO – I'd - !"

"Ash, stop it!" Serena cried out, desperate to keep Ash from running off and doing something stupid. "If you don't, you're going to end up just like Pikachu!"

Ash froze. He blinked, letting the silence hang in the air as he processed what she'd just said.

Serena tightened her hold on him and pulled him a little closer toward her. "Didn't you hear what Korrina told you…? You can't disappear…"

Seth watched Serena's face and realized that Ash disappearing meant the same to her as Pikachu disappearing did to Ash. He allowed himself a small smile despite the situation.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Ash brought his hand up and placed it over Serena's on his chest. "…Okay. Let's go get the others and…I dunno. Think of something, I guess." Despite his agreement to stay, Serena could tell that with Pikachu gone, a piece of his own self was missing, as well.

"Yeah." Serena replied softly, nodding in agreement.

Seth recalled Aggron and the three turned to head back into town. Before they could even get back to the main road, however, they were met with the sight of Clemont and Bonnie happily strolling back toward them, both of them carrying two drinks each.

"Hey, Serena! We didn't know you were gonna be back already, or we would've gotten you something, too!" Bonnie explained cheerfully.

"Hey, wait…" Clemont began, scanning the area behind Ash and the others for the missing member of their party. "Where'd Korrina go? I thought you two were going to be practicing together for the rest of the day."

Ash and Serena glanced over at each other uneasily.

"She's…she's gone."

* * *

_A little shorter than usual, but hey, when shipping moments are as few and far between as they've been in this story so far, you can't really complain when you finally get one. Also plot is finally happening so hey._

_Hope you all enjoyed, and have a good Halloween later this week!_


	8. Chapter 8: Serena

_Hey guys! Stuff finally seems to be calming down with me, so hopefully I can start churning these out a little faster than I have been for the last few weeks. I'd like to have this story finished by the end of the year, and I don't think I could do that if I kept up the pace I'd been going at recently. _

_Thanks to all of you that have stuck with this story so far, as I know it's been kind of slow moving so far, which hasn't been helped by my slow pace of adding new chapters. From here on out it should be better. _

_Anyway, as usual, I hope you all enjoy this one!_

* * *

"What do you think we should do, then…?" Clemont asked, taking a sip of his drink before continuing. "Going to ask Gurkinn about all this is probably out of the question…"

Seth nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I don't want to jump to any conclusions about the guy, but until we know for sure, it's probably better to just stay away from him."

"I suppose we could always just go to the Gym tomorrow and pretend like nothing happened." Clemont proposed, putting a hand to his chin as the fledgling idea slowly took form in his mind. "You know, act like Ash is just going there to challenge Korrina..."

"But Gurkinn said that Korrina couldn't accept any challengers until she mastered Mega Evolution. That's why we were helping her train in the first place, remember?" Serena rebuked.

"Oh…you're right…" Clemont replied, his persona visibly deflating as he spoke.

"What does Korrina want with Pikachu, anyway…?" Bonnie questioned sadly, her eyes glued to the floor. "I thought she was our friend…"

Silence hung in the air for a few moments after she spoke, none among the group feeling brave or qualified enough to attempt a response. The five of them had made their way back into town after Korrina and Lucario made off with Pikachu, and ended up realizing that they were going to have to stay in the Pokémon Center that night, as it was too risky to head back to the Tower of Mastery now to request a room as they had originally planned.

They were currently seated in a booth near the window of the Pokémon Center's restaurant area, though none of them felt much like eating, and so had merely resorted to halfheartedly sipping at their drinks in place of a proper meal.

Serena looked over at Ash solemnly as the uncomfortable silence wore on. He hadn't said a word since they'd entered the Pokémon Center, and his gaze had been glued to his beverage ever since they'd sat down. She was convinced that the liquid inside was at the same level it had been when he'd first gotten it.

Although she knew deep down that there was nothing any of them could have done to stop Korrina or Lucario, she still couldn't help but feel responsible for what happened, and for the way Ash was feeling. She wanted nothing more than to tell him that it was all going to work out like it always did, and that everything was going to be all right. But she couldn't bring herself to tell him that, not when they hadn't the faintest idea of where Korrina had disappeared to, or even what she was planning to do with Pikachu in the first place.

More than anything else, Serena felt frustrated. Frustrated beyond belief.

"Hey…I've got an idea." Seth spoke up, breaking the silence all of a sudden. "What if I go to the Gym tomorrow and try to challenge it myself? Korrina's grandfather hasn't met me yet. I can get in and at least find out if Korrina's there or not. Who knows? Maybe her grandfather can help us out after all."

"Wait…you want to go there alone?" Serena replied cautiously. "After what just happened? What if she _is_ there, and something ends up happening to you, too?"

Seth grunted, unsure of how to give her a satisfactory answer.

"He doesn't have to go alone." Clemont answered from out of the blue.

"Huh?" Seth remarked confusedly. "Look, I don't really think you guys can just sneak in there or something…"

Clemont shook his head knowingly. "We don't have to! We can have Ash's Fletchinder follow you inside from the air. If anything happens to you, it can fly back to us here and let us know!"

Seth opened his mouth to reply, but instead found it to be a surprisingly logical plan. He blinked, catching himself before saying anything to Clemont, and looked over at Ash, whose head was still down. "Oh…I didn't know you had a Fletchinder, Ash. That actually might work." He chuckled nervously and looked back at Clemont apologetically. "Guess the things they say about you are true after all. No wonder you're the Lumiose Gym Leader!"

Now it was Clemont's turn to chuckle nervously. "Oh…you really think so?" He replied nervously.

"Sometimes my big brother can do some really dumb things, but he's actually really smart!" Bonnie explained happily.

Serena smiled despite herself as she watched the three of them go back and forth with each other, grateful that they at least had a plan of action for the next day. She was continuously surprised by how much easier it seemed to be to handle difficult things that would come up if you simply remained positive about the situation. Her friends had taught her that on their journey together, and there was no better example of it than the situation unfolding right in front of her.

And yet, despite that being the case, she couldn't help but feel that lingering sense of responsibility for the fact that Ash had been separated from his best friend. She looked over at him again and tentatively reached out a hand toward his shoulder.

"It's going to be all right." She assured him, surprised that she'd found the strength to utter those words to him. "We'll find Pikachu, okay? I promise."

Ash looked up at her, and for the first time she truly saw the pain that he was feeling. The look on his face was unlike any she'd ever seen from him before. And then, in an instant, that expression dissolved, and he was smiling at her, just like he always did. "I'm all right. You don't need to worry about me, okay?"

He tapped her hand with his and nodded to her before turning to the others and finally joining them in their conversation. However, now it was Serena's turn to remain silent, as she spent the rest of their evening pondering Ash's reaction to her words. _"Why is he suddenly acting like it doesn't bother him...?"_

* * *

"Oh, Korrina!" Gurkinn remarked happily upon seeing who it was that had activated the bridge. "How did the training go? Any progress at all?"

"Oh, yeah, actually. I think me and Lucario are getting pretty close to mastery." Korrina replied offhandedly, not even stopping as she walked past her grandfather without a second thought.

"Good to hear. What is that bag you've got there?" Gurkinn inquired, gesturing to the strange brown sack she was carrying over her shoulder.

"Oh, this? Just some groceries I picked up on the way back." She replied, still not turning to face him, or even stopping. "I'll be in my room, okay?"

Gurkinn watched her suspiciously as she walked away toward the small cabin that she called her own. He could tell that something was off about her, but he couldn't quite tell what it was. For the moment, he decided to dismiss it as nothing, and began walking back toward the main building.

Once in her own room, Korrina swiftly shut the door behind her and placed the securely-tied sack on the floor next to her bed. Inside was Ash's unconscious Pikachu. She then grabbed the Holo Caster off of her desk and began to call up her contact.

A few moments later, the small handheld device spat out a hologram that hovered in place directly above itself. The image appeared to be of a hooded male figure, only visible in the hologram from the shoulders up. The spray from the projection lit the room up with a wash of artificial light.

"Hey, it's Korrina. I got the Pikachu we were talking about the other day."

"Really? What about the trainer?"

Korrina sighed disparagingly. "I, uh…couldn't get him to cooperate."

The man grunted in reply. "I thought you said you could take care of…well, it doesn't matter, anyway. The Pokémon is more important at this point. Can you bring it in tomorrow?"

Korrina nodded enthusiastically. "That's the plan, right? If I'm lucky, I can run into Ash again and get him to follow me…"

"Ash? The trainer?" The man questioned. "Well, if you happen to meet him tomorrow, then fine, but don't get distracted. Like I said – "

"Yeah, yeah, the Pokémon's more important. I know." Korrina chided, almost jokingly. "Don't worry about it. I'll be there, one way or another."

"All right, then. See you tomorrow."

With that, the holographic image faded, once again dropping the room into darkness. Korrina replaced the Holo Caster on her desk and looked over at the sack she'd placed on the floor.

"Hope you're ready for a busy day tomorrow…"

* * *

Later that night, Serena found herself unable to sleep. Due to the addition of Seth into their ranks, they'd been forced to get two rooms at the Pokémon Center, which prompted Ash and Clemont to volunteer to stay with Seth so that he wouldn't feel singled out. This left the other room to Serena and Bonnie, and while under normal circumstances Serena wouldn't see that as much of a problem, tonight in particular had her feeling a little off, and so she was forced to decline Bonnie's request that they sleep next to each other as they'd often done in the past.

Serena wasn't sure how late it was, but she was positive that Bonnie had long since fallen asleep. She sat up in bed and looked out the window at the moon, which was floating up in the night sky at roughly half-full.

"_Why…why do I feel like this…?" _Serena thought to herself. She got up out of bed and walked over to the window, staring up at the sky wistfully. _"Is it because it's Ash…?"_

She clenched her fists angrily as her thoughts kept coming to a dead end. _"Why do I feel like I have to go alone? We have a plan for tomorrow…Seth said it's going to be okay…he wants to help, too. And I'm sure Clemont and Bonnie feel the same way…but they're not…they don't…"_

Serena had always managed to push her true feelings for Ash aside until now. Once in a while, they would bubble up to the surface again, but for the most part she was happy to just support Ash on his journey, and maybe find her own goal while she was at it. She'd always avoided confronting her feelings for him because she wasn't sure how he would react, and, honestly, she wasn't even positive how she herself would act once her feelings for him were out in the open.

Even when Clemont and Bonnie had told her that they'd figured it out, that still didn't really change anything for her. She knew that they wouldn't tell Ash. But now she was being forced to deal with how she felt. None of their other friends were insisting on going off on their own to save Pikachu, even though they knew just as well as she did how much it meant to Ash to get his partner back. And she was certain that nobody else was up at this hour of the night pondering these same thoughts that she was right now –

She jumped suddenly and turned around when Bonnie sneezed in her sleep, laying in bed with Dedenne calmly snoring next to her. Serena watched the two of them for a moment before suddenly coming to a realization.

"_What am I thinking?!" _ Serena chastised herself as she hurriedly ran into the bathroom to throw her travelling clothes on. She finished within a minute and left the room while making a point not to wake up Bonnie. Once outside, she single-mindedly made her way out of the Pokémon Center and onto the main road that led toward the Tower of Mastery, at which point she allowed herself to break into a sprint. _"Have I really been worrying this much about __**that**__?!"_

She gritted her teeth and lowered her head, determined not to waste a second of time now that she'd made a decision. It was almost as if a part of her was afraid that if she slowed down or stopped, she might change her mind. _"It doesn't matter what happens between me and Ash. It doesn't matter what happens between any of us!"_

She continued running through town, thankful for the fact that it was so late, as it meant that the town was virtually empty. _"What matters right now…" _She thought to herself slowly as the Tower of Mastery began to rise up on the horizon._ "…is helping my friend!"_

* * *

"Aaa-CHOOO!"

Bonnie jerked herself up in bed, the force of her sneeze jolting her awake. Dedenne was forced awake as well, staring up at her with wide eyes as if she'd just fired a gun.

"Uuuhh…" She moaned, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. "What's wrong with me…I didn't feel sick today…"

She blinked groggily and glanced around the room to make sure she hadn't woken up Serena, as well. It was then she noticed something strange about her roommate's bed.

"H-huh?!"

She stared at the bed in shock for a moment before leaping out of the covers and dashing over next door to where the boys were sleeping.

"Clemont! Ash!" Bonnie cried out desperately as she threw open the door to their room.

"Huh…?" Ash moaned as the three of them sat up in their beds, still half-asleep.

"Bonnie, go back to sleep…" Clemont droned, almost as if on auto-pilot as Seth rubbed his eyes in the back of the room.

"Listen to me, big brother!" Bonnie insisted. "Serena's not in her bed!"

"What?!" Ash demanded as Seth and Clemont's eyes shot open at once.

"Didn't you hear me?!" Bonnie continued angrily. "Serena is gone!"

* * *

_Hope you guys enjoyed yet another cliffhanger, heh. See you all next time!_


	9. Chapter 9: Strike Back

_Hey everyone. This chapter and the next will finally be answering a lot of your questions, I think. Prepare for lots more Serena POV! _

_Hope you all enjoy!_

* * *

Serena continued running until she made it to the cliff overlooking the bay separating the city from the Tower of Mastery. She stood there for a moment, leaning over the edge of the dropoff with her hands on her knees as she attempted to catch her breath. As she looked out at the expanse of water before her, a thought suddenly popped into her head, something that she couldn't believe she had forgotten about until now.

"_Oh, no…" _She thought to herself frantically as she raced down the path toward the beach. Her fears were confirmed when she drew up to the shoreline and planted one foot in the ebbing water defiantly…and nothing happened. _"Oh, no…!"_

In her haste to follow through on her newfound resolve, she had completely forgotten to take into account the fact that the Tower of Mastery was not open to the general public. She remembered with dread what Korrina had told them the previous morning about how only members of her family could summon the pathway to make it across the bay.

She remained there for a moment, staring at the tower, her sense of determination rapidly fading away. But then an image of Ash's face came unbidden to the forefront of her thoughts. She imagined how he must be feeling without Pikachu, and how relieved he would be if his companion were to be returned to him safely.

She frowned, clenched her fists, and stepped back from the water, scanning the beach behind her until she found a public bench near the cliff side. She removed her hat and placed it on the bench, almost solemnly, before turning back to face the tower almost defiantly, as if the structure itself was her adversary.

She then made her way back to the shoreline, took a deep breath, and ran forward, plunging headfirst into the stinging cold of the ocean.

* * *

"Serena!"

"Hey, Serena!"

"Serena! Where are you?!"

"No luck, huh?" Seth asked, coming up beside Ash from a side street.

"None…" Ash admitted as the two of them met up with Clemont and Bonnie as well. "Why would she leave without telling anyone? And in the middle of the night?"

"I…dunno." Clemont answered hesitantly, not wanting to say what was really on his mind.

"I'm really scared. What if something happened to her?!" Bonnie cried frantically.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine!" Clemont assured her at once, though he honestly wasn't so sure.

"Hmm…" Ash murmured, crossing his arms as he attempted to figure out where she might have disappeared to.

"You know…" Seth began slowly. "It kind of sounds crazy, but…do you guys think she went off to fight Korrina on her own?"

"What?!" Ash replied in shock as Clemont and Bonnie shared a concerned, knowing look with each other. "But why? Why would she go off on her own like that?!"

"Well…" Seth answered, taking care to choose his words cautiously. "I'm not sure, but…I mean, she's your friend, right? Maybe she felt like it was her responsibility to save Pikachu on her own."

Ash opened his mouth to reply, but was surprised to find that he couldn't find the words to rebuke Seth's argument. He turned his gaze up to the night sky in frustration, remembering that this wasn't the first time that she'd gone out of her way to help him. _"Serena…"_

Suddenly, he turned away from the group and took off running, heading deeper into town, toward the Tower of Mastery.

"H-hey! Ash, wait!" Clemont called out.

"Where are you going?!" Bonnie added worriedly.

"To find Serena!" Ash shouted in reply, not turning to look back.

* * *

Cold was the sole sensation that flooded Serena's head as she dove deep down into the freezing expanse of water. Not allowing that torturous feeling to paralyze her, she immediately kicked her legs out and propelled herself forward, allowing her head to bob back up above the surface as she did so.

The first thought that entered her head after she had more or less recovered from the shock of the water temperature itself was that she was grateful she'd had the foresight to leave her hat behind. The waves were surprisingly rough, and her face was constantly being shoved underwater despite her best efforts to keep it afloat. Her pink hat would most definitely have been washed away with the current if she'd worn it into the water.

Despite the frigid temperature, her trip across the small bay passed without much consequence, other than her physical exhaustion after swimming for a few minutes. As she drew up closer to the opposite beach, she spotted the section amidst the rocks where it seemed to be open – presumably where the other end of the sand bridge connected to. She smiled despite her fatigue and began to wonder to herself if anyone besides her had actually attempted to merely swim across the gap to the Tower or the Gym.

Just as she began to ponder those thoughts, however, she was suddenly thrown to the side by what she could only assume was a sharp rip current. She attempted to right herself toward the beach again, but instead found herself being carried quite swiftly in the opposite direction – directly toward some of the rocks she had noticed moments before.

Suddenly realizing why a bridge was required to cross over to the island, and scolding herself for not thinking of this sooner, she took a large breath of air and dove underwater, attempting to fight against the current. Despite her best efforts, the current was too strong for her, far too strong, and a second later, her body was thrown against the surface of one of the rocks before sliding off and continuing on with the riptide.

A couple of injuries later, it began to dawn on her that she was almost out of energy, and she'd made no progress fighting the current. Deciding to take a chance, she pivoted in the water and faced the next rock she was due to collide with. _"Come on, Serena – it's just like riding a Rhyhorn! Just take charge and go!"_

She swung her forward and to the side at the last second and barely managed to dodge the rock, only to be met with a group of three more ahead of her. She tried to dodge one, but instead slammed into the other. She felt her clothes rip and her skin tear open as she desperately attempted to maneuver her way through the rocks to the shoreline. Before long, her body was forced to submit, and she felt her vision go dark as she suddenly lost track of what was happening around her.

She awoke what seemed like moments later, every orifice of her body aching, her head pounding like a drum. She felt sand on her back and realized that she must have somehow managed to wash up on the beach of Korrina's island. Slowly, delicately, she pulled herself up to her feet, almost physically recoiling when she saw the amount of gashes that dotted her arms and legs.

"Hey!" A commanding male voice rang out through the darkness, causing Serena to jump, and also to wince immediately afterwards as she felt something sting. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

She turned toward the tower and saw an older man come running out toward her across the beach. Serena assumed from Ash's description that he was Gurkinn, Korrina's grandfather. "U-um…" She knew that they had all been worried about speaking to him regarding Korrina, but right now, she didn't really have any choice. If he really was in league with her, then her mission was probably a failure already. "I'm…I'm a friend of Ash's. I came to see Korrina…it's really important."

Gurkinn drew up beside her and looked her over. "Ash's friend, you say? But what would make you want to come out to our island at this hour? Why didn't you just tell Korrina that you were coming?"

"I…well…wait…what are _you_ doing up so late…uh, sir?"

Gurkinn's eyes narrowed. "I wasn't, if you must know, but it is my job to make sure that nobody comes to the island without permission. So unless you want me to throw you back into that water, I'd suggest you tell me why you came here."

Serena paused for a moment, still breathing heavily from her excursion in the rocks. She'd pretty much already backed herself into a corner by telling Gurkinn anything, so she figured that she might as well just go all the way with it. "Well…you see, sir…Korrina, she…she has one of Ash's Pokémon."

"What did you just say?"

Serena nodded sadly. "We don't know why, but…when we were training with her earlier…she attacked us, and stole Ash's Pikachu. I think she still has it here, somewhere on the island."

Gurkinn regarded her intensely for a moment, and Serena couldn't tell if he was going to slap her or start laughing at her. Instead, he did neither: he stepped forward and put a hand on Korrina's shoulder reassuringly. "Are you sure?"

Serena almost couldn't believe it. She nodded in exasperation, prompting Gurkinn to take her arm and put it around his neck. "Then come with me. My apologies for your injuries…I'll see if I can get them treated after we are finished."

Together the two of them limped back toward the main establishment, and for Serena, it was all she could do to stay conscious. With every step Gurkinn took, it seemed as if every pore in her body emanated pain. By the time he began to draw closer to a cabin that she could only assume was Korrina's, she was just about ready to fall over and die.

Gurkinn, on the other hand, couldn't help but remember the sack that Korrina had brought home with her earlier that night. The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became. _"Korrina…what have you done?"_

They approached the front door of the cabin, and Gurkinn propped Serena up on the door frame before backing up, taking a deep breath, and barging in. Serena was slightly surprised at his rush to get inside, but remained silent as she peered around the corner and watched him from outside.

He walked in and instantly noticed that Korrina was missing from her bed. "Hmm…" He scanned the main room and recognized the bag he'd seen her carrying inside earlier lying on the floor. Cautiously, he approached the bag, which didn't appear to be moving, and reached out to open it.

Serena heard footsteps approaching from behind them, and braced herself to move as she swung inside the house along with Gurkinn. Just as she did, she noticed the bag falling open in front of her to reveal none other than Pikachu, seemingly asleep, inside of it.

"You just love getting in the way, don't you?" Korrina's voice echoed throughout the room, causing Gurkinn and Serena both to shoot their eyes to the front door to see her standing in the doorway. "I was really hoping that Ash would be the one to come and save Pikachu."

Serena gritted her teeth when she heard Ash's name. "What do you want with them?!"

Korrina chuckled. "Oh, nothing, really. I just thought that they'd want to come along with me from now on instead of hanging around you guys."

"Korrina, what is the meaning of this?!" Gurkinn grunted angrily.

"I'm sorry, Grandfather." Korrina answered sympathetically. "I really didn't want to get you wrapped up in all this."

"All _what_? What's going on?!" Gurkinn demanded.

Korrina glanced back and forth between the two of them before sighing, seemingly resigning herself to answer them. "Oh, all right. While I was out on my journey to get the Lucarionite…I ran into a few of these guys. They said they were former members of Team Flare."

"Team Flare…" Gurkinn grumbled disdainfully. Serena had heard the name once or twice, but didn't really have much knowledge on them beyond that. She decided it would be best not to make a scene about it, however, and instead merely continued listening.

"I mean, I thought the same thing at first, you know? Team Flare is crazy, no question about that." Korrina admitted. "But these guys…they seemed different. They talked to me for a while and convinced me to join up with them." She paused for a moment before continuing. "They took some stuff from Team Flare when they left, apparently. It's a device to affect the genes of Pokémon and force them to Mega Evolve!"

Gurkinn's eyes widened in horror. "Korrina…you of all people should know how wrong that is. Mega Evolution is not merely a tool used to acquire power…it is a symbol of the trust between a Pokémon and its trainer. Not to mention…Mega Evolution is not even possible for some types of Pokémon…you know that!" He sighed solemnly. "If this is what you have been after, then it is no wonder that you and Lucario haven't yet mastered Mega Evolution – "

"You're wrong!" Korrina interrupted, firing up all of a sudden. "You think it would've taken us this long to get it right? I was lying to all of you about that, just in case somebody found out what we were doing. After all…" She glanced over at Serena. "I don't think Ash expected Lucario to be so powerful when we fought back there, or I might've had even more trouble getting Pikachu than I already did."

"Korrina…" Serena murmured sadly. "I thought you were our friend…"

"Oh, I was!" Korrina replied happily. "In a way. I loved spending time with Ash. The rest of you were all right, I guess, but Ash was the one I really saw potential in. Just imagine what's going to happen once I put Pikachu in that machine!"

"You're not taking Pikachu anywhere!" Serena cried.

"Oh, but, Serena…don't you think it would make Ash happy? To grow closer to Pikachu like that?" Korrina mused, winking at her knowingly.

"Nothing can be gained through methods like those!" Gurkinn insisted. "I thought I trained you better than this, Korrina. If this is truly what you believe…" He reached his hand to his belt.

"What? Are you going to fight me, Grandfather?" Korrina replied confidently. "I know your Pokémon better than anyone. But you've never seen me and Lucario fight with everything we've got!"

Gurkinn gritted his teeth. "Don't presume to know so much. Come…we're taking this outside!"

Korrina laughed and followed him as they made their out to the clearing in front of the house, leaving Serena alone in the cabin with Pikachu. She allowed herself to fall down to her knees in an attempt to recuperate from her experience with the riptide. Reaching out a hand, she grabbed Pikachu and slowly pulled it over toward her before laying her head down on the floor next to it.

"Don't worry, Pikachu…it's going to be okay." Serena breathed, not even sure if the Pokémon could hear her or not. "I'll make sure you see Ash again…"

* * *

_I can't wrap up EVERYTHING in one chapter, come on. That would just be silly!_

_Also, the name of the chapter here is in fact a reference to something. One of my favorite somethings, as a matter of fact. But it might be too obscure for you guys to get...I don't know._

_Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed! See you next time!_


	10. Chapter 10: My Resolve

_Hey everyone! Got a bit of a longer chapter for you all this time, though I think you all deserve that much at least, after all of the delays and such with this story._

_Hope you all enjoy!_

* * *

"Ash! Wait!" Clemont cried, desperately attempting to keep up with Bonnie and Seth as the three of them continued to chase Ash through the streets of the city.

Ash ignored them, as he had been doing all along, and turned to make his way down the hill leading to the beach. However, as soon as his foot landed on the grainy mass of sand, he froze.

His friends noticed that he had stopped running, and smiled gratefully, thinking that he had finally heeded their calls.

"Ash…you finally stopped…" Seth proclaimed breathlessly, the three of them coming up beside him, though his gaze remained locked on the public bench a few yards in front of him.

"Huh? What's wrong…?" Bonnie asked, following his eyes to the bench situated near the cliff at the back end of the beach. She gasped when she noticed the all-too-familiar item resting atop it. "That's - !"

"Yeah." Ash affirmed, approaching the bench cautiously before picking the hat up. "This is Serena's hat, no doubt about it…"

"But why would she just…leave it here?" Clemont wondered, sharing a confused look with Ash and Bonnie before noticing Seth, who had shifted his attention to the Tower of Mastery, looming over the bay at them.

"She must've swum across."

"What?" Clemont replied in disbelief. "But…that's almost impossible." He declared, taking a few steps toward the water and looking out toward the tower. "Even if you could make it all the way across, there's bound to be a rip current on the other side. And those rocks don't look too friendly, either…"

Seth turned to face him before answering back. "Look, there's no other way across, right? Only the Gym Leader can raise the sand bridge. If Serena was heading over to the island, the only way she could've gotten there was by swimming it."

Clemont frowned, not wanting to accept that Serena had forced herself to do something so dangerous.

"But…if that's true, then…what happened to her after that? Is she okay?" Bonnie questioned sympathetically, putting a hand to her chest as she looked out across the bay as well.

Ash stowed Serena's hat in his bag before turning to face the Tower of Mastery defiantly. "All right, then."

Clemont turned to Ash at once, a fearful look in his eye. "Ash, what are you – "

"I'm going, too!"

* * *

"Blaziken, use Blaze Kick, now!"

"Lucario, Bone Rush!"

The two attacks collided, and Lucario ended up sending Blaziken flying back across the field, leaving the dual Fire/Fighting type panting and down to one knee.

Gurkinn gritted his teeth, legitimately surprised by how powerful Korrina and her Lucario had became since he'd seen them battle last. _"Either that, or they've been fooling me for longer than I thought…"_

Suddenly, he felt a buzzing against his chest, causing him to look down in frustration. "What is it now?!" He grunted, reaching inside his jacket and producing the Holo Caster he was wearing around his neck. It was programmed to go off whenever a challenger was approaching the bridge on the other side of the beach, which usually prompted him to go and raise the bridge for them to see what they wanted. This time, however, it was in the middle of the night, and he couldn't imagine that just anybody would be approaching the island at this hour. _"Wait a minute…"_ He mused, clicking the button that disabled the bridge alarm before stuffing the device back into his coat.

"What's wrong, Grandfather?" Korrina taunted. "We don't have to fight, you know. You're bringing this on yourself."

Gurkinn chose to ignore her, and instead walked up behind his Blaziken. "I know they're stronger than us, my friend…but I need to ask a favor of you."

Korrina saw the two of them muttering to each other, and decided to make a move, more out of her impatience to finish the battle than anything else. "What is it? You got a secret or something, Grandfather?! Lucario, use Aura Sphere!"

Gurkinn backed away from Blaziken as soon as he heard her call the attack, but he had already said everything he need to. Without hesitating for a second, he cried out, "Now, Blaziken, Mega Evolve!"

Korrina's eyes widened in pleasant surprise at his words, and she watched as Lucario's attack hit the energy field that suddenly manifested around Blaziken, and dissipated harmlessly. A moment later, the field vanished as well, and Mega Blaziken was left standing there, having seemingly gained a second wind in the process.

"BLAAAAAZE!" Blaziken roared defiantly.

"Thank you, my friend. Now, go!" Gurkinn called, briefly gesturing at Korrina and Lucario before turning on a dime and running, heading toward the island's front gate.

Korrina smiled when she realized what was going on. "Oh, I see what you're doing. You're lucky you know me so well, Grandfather." She turned to regard Blaziken dashing toward her. "You know I've always wanted to battle you and Blaziken like this! Lucario, Mega Evolve!"

* * *

"Ash, that's crazy! You can't just jump in and swim across the bay like that!" Clemont continued to protest, restraining himself from physically holding Ash back.

"If Serena did it, then so can I!" Ash reasoned angrily. "Who knows what's going on over there right now…I have to go!"

"We don't even know if Serena made it over there!" Seth pointed out grimly. "You can't – "

"Of course she did!" Ash shot back, clenching his fists. "What are you trying to say?! That she's…she's - !"

Before Ash could finish, they heard a rumbling sound, and the ground began to shake slightly. The four of them looked out at the water in surprise to see the bay parting along the path to the island, with the sand bridge forming in its place.

"Huh…?" Ash remarked skeptically, watching as the narrow trail of sand stretching between the beach and the island gradually came into view. "But…how…?"

"Maybe there's someone on the other side, after all." Seth answered. "Someone waiting for us…"

Ash steeled himself, regaining his vigor despite his surprise at what had just transpired. "Right. Then let's get moving!" He took off running across the bridge, not stopping to see if anyone was actually following him or not.

Clemont and Bonnie glanced at each other nervously before taking off after him, leaving Seth as the last one standing on the beach. He allowed himself a moment to watch Ash as he ran toward the island without a second thought, desperate to save Serena from throwing herself in harm's way for his sake. He smiled to himself briefly as he pondered the words Serena had said to him back on their lunch date before finally running forward himself to join Ash and the others.

After finally making it across to the other side of the bridge, they were met by Gurkinn, who had been waiting for them on the beach. "So…it really was you. I suspected as much."

"Gurkinn!" Ash proclaimed with relief.

"You must be…Korrina's grandfather!" Clemont deduced.

"So you're the one that opened the path for us, then?" Seth inquired.

Gurkinn nodded gravely. "That is correct." He turned to face Ash before continuing. "I believe I owe you an apology for Korrina's actions, at the very least, but unfortunately there is no time for that now. I was battling Korrina when I noticed you arrive on the beach – we must hurry back and aid my Blaziken before it is too late!"

The four of them nodded, each putting the pieces together well enough to understand what was going on. "Right – let's go!" Ash remarked, sounding more determined than ever.

However, they hadn't even taken a dozen steps before Ash spoke up again, glancing over at Gurkinn worriedly. "Oh, right…uh, Gurkinn? Have you seen Serena? Is she here on the island?"

Gurkinn looked back over his shoulder at him, not slowing his pace. "Serena…the young lady, I presume? Yes, she's here. She washed up on the beach shortly before I encountered Korrina. In fact, I probably wouldn't have even discovered what my granddaughter was up to if not for her."

"She's here?!" Ash remarked, a wave of relief passing over the four of them. "Where is she?!"

"Hm? She's with your Pikachu, as a matter of fact." Gurkinn answered. "She didn't look too good when I found her on the beach. If Korrina defeats Blaziken before we get back, I doubt there's much she can do against her."

Ash gritted his teeth. "That's not going to happen!"

Gurkinn couldn't help but smile at Ash's resolve. "I should hope not."

It wasn't much longer before they finally arrived back at the open clearing just outside of Korrina's cabin. Lucario and Korrina still appeared to be battling, as well as Blaziken, though the latter definitely appeared more worse for wear.

Gurkinn ran up to take his place beside his Pokémon while Ash and the others hung back, admiring Mega Blaziken's appearance for a moment. "That's…Mega Blaziken!" Clemont announced in awe.

"Blaziken!" Gurkinn cried, running up to his partner. "Are you okay? Can you continue?"

"Blaze…" Blaziken grunted in anguish.

"Oh, so that's what you were doing! I wondered what was so important that you'd abandon your Pokémon like that. Now it makes sense!" Korrina remarked.

"Korrina!" Ash cried out angrily, running up beside Gurkinn as he glared daggers at the Gym Leader. "Where's Pikachu? Where's Serena?!"

"Oh, don't worry, Ash! You'll get to see them soon enough, I promise. Just let me finish up with Grandfather here – Lucario, use Aura Sphere!"

"Rrrraa!" Lucario grunted, shooting off another ball of energy across the clearing at Blaziken, who was far too tired at this point to dodge. He took the hit head-on while Ash and Gurkinn ran to opposite sides of the field to escape the blast.

"Blaziken!" Gurkinn cried, but to no avail. A rainbow-colored aura appeared around Blaziken briefly while it degenerated back to its base state. "Return, my friend. You did more than I could have ever asked for."

"Well, I have to admit, that was pretty fun." Korrina admitted, and true to her word, Lucario did appear to be somewhat exhausted from the battle. Even so, it was still standing, and appeared ready to continue fighting. "But now what are you gonna do? You want to try your Lucario against mine?"

Gurkinn grunted angrily, replacing Blaziken's Poke Ball inside his jacket. Before anyone else could make a move, however, a voice erupted from the open door of Korrina's cabin, taking every single one of them by surprise.

"Ash!"

Ash turned to find the source of the voice and was met with the sight of Serena shakily running out of the cabin toward them, an unconscious Pikachu in her arms. At that moment, something strange seemed to trigger inside of the young Pokémon trainer, and to him, Serena seemed almost angelic all of a sudden. He blinked awkwardly for a moment, letting the impact of what he was seeing and feeling sink in, before allowing his face to break into a grin stretching from ear to ear.

"Serena! Pikachu!"

Seth, Clemont, and Bonnie all smiled as well when they saw her running toward them. She was covered in bruises and appeared to be having trouble moving, but there was no time to interrogate her. Korrina saw her coming toward them as well, and turned to regard her.

"Oh, looky here. See, Ash? I told you that you'd get to see them soon!" Korrina remarked happily, almost smugly. "But you know, Serena, I can't just let you go and take Pikachu like that." She gestured at Lucario, and it moved at once to block Serena's path.

Serena stopped and back up slightly as Lucario jumped in front of her, arms stretched wide to block her from getting past. Ash reached for a Poke Ball, but Korrina noticed, and turned to regard him before he could make a move. "Don't even think about it, Ash! I really don't want to do it this way, but if you're gonna try and gang up on me like that, then I've got no choice, really. If you try and help her, I'll just have Lucario take her out!"

Ash froze on the spot, and Clemont turned to her angrily. "What's wrong with you?! Don't you have any pride as a Gym Leader at all?!"

"Of course I do. That's what all of this is about, right? I'm trying to provide people and their Pokémon a chance to live a better life together – through Mega Evolution!"

Clemont hesitated, not sure what she was referring to exactly. This gave Seth an opportunity to step in. "Mega Evolution…? What are you talking about?"

Gurkinn narrowed his eyes in frustration. "It's what she's doing all of this for. Supposedly, she has a contact – or contacts – that possess a machine with the ability to force Mega Evolution onto any Pokémon. That's what she plans to use Pikachu for – an experiment."

Ash, Clemont, Bonnie, and Seth all turned to face Korrina in surprise and disbelief. "Korrina…" Ash began slowly. "Is that really true…?"

Korrina smiled wide at him. "Of course! Doesn't it sound amazing? Don't you wish your Pikachu could Mega Evolve? I'm just trying to help you guys out!"

Bonnie ran forward, a mix of betrayal, anger, and sadness present on her face. "No you're not! You're not our friend at all! You just want to take Pikachu and use him for whatever you want!"

"Mega Evolution is a symbol of the trust a trainer shares with his Pokémon." Gurkinn explained ruefully. "It is NOT something to be manufactured in a laboratory! That is an abomination!"

Korrina sighed, seeming to be genuinely saddened by his words. "I wish I could make you understand…I thought you of all people would listen to me, Grandfather."

"If that is so, then you obviously don't know me as well as you think you do!"

Meanwhile, Serena was still stuck behind Lucario, who was staring her down, refusing to budge. She knew that even if a shadow of a chance of her getting around it existed, it was null at this point anyway, since it had already Mega Evolved. She knew that with Pikachu being unconscious, and Korrina prevented the rest of her friends from using their Pokémon, there was only one way out of this for them.

Shifting Pikachu over to one arm under her shoulder, she reached into her skirt pocket with her free hand and produced the one occupied Poke Ball in her possession. "Fennekin, please! I need you!"

"Fennnnnekin!" Fennekin chirped, materializing in the small space between Serena and Lucario. This caused everyone else to turn their heads in shock, especially Korrina.

"Excuse me?" Korrina chuckled. "Not to be rude or anything, Serena, but…you're not serious with that, are you?"

"There's no way that Fennekin can beat Mega Lucario…even if it does have a type advantage!" Clemont deduced.

Serena narrowed her eyes, returning Lucario's gaze adamantly. "Fennekin, use Flamethrower, now!"

"Fennnnnn!" Fennekin roared, blasting a wave of fire out of its mouth toward Lucario.

Korrina's eyes widened, but she didn't miss a beat as she allowed her battling instincts to kick in and take over. "Jump and dodge it, Lucario!"

Lucario obeyed, leaping high into the sky and easily avoiding Fennekin's attack. However, this gave Serena the opening she had planned for, and instantly ran forward as soon as Lucario left the ground. "Fennekin, Hidden Power!"

Lucario and Korrina both saw what Serena's plan was, but before Lucario could land and prevent her from rejoining her friends, half a dozen balls of white energy surged forward from Fennekin and collided with it in midair.

Korrina frowned for the first time that night. "Go, Lucario!"

"RAAAAAAA!" Lucario roared, rolling into its midair fall and dashing toward Serena, slamming into the ground in front of her, still a good few dozen yards from Ash and the others. Serena jumped and ended up falling over backward when Lucario landed, leaving her sprawled out on the ground defenseless as it summoned its Bone Rush and swung it toward her –

"FENNNNNNN!" Fennekin squeaked, flying in front of the attack before it could collide with Serena. Fennekin was swatted away like a fly and launched across the clearing, slamming into a tree before crumpling to the ground.

"Fennekin!" Serena cried out sadly, reaching out toward her fallen Pokémon before being cut off by Lucario's bone club. She looked up at it fearfully, and it stared back down at her angrily.

"I warned you not to try and battle us, you know." Korrina remarked, shrugging her shoulders.

"Stop it, Korrina!" Ash demanded. "That's enough!"

"Sure!" Korrina agreed. "I take it that you and Pikachu are coming with us, then?"

Ash hesitated. Korrina waited a moment for his answer before sighing. "Then I guess we gotta keep going." She turned to Lucario. "All right, let's wrap it up, Lucario. You probably don't have much more left in you, right? Take her out and grab Pikachu!"

"No!" Serena exclaimed desperately, covering the small Mouse Pokémon with her arms. "You're NEVER getting Pikachu! You hear me?!"

Ash's eyes widened as he watched her defend his Pokémon with her life. He couldn't remember anyone else other than himself going so far to protect his partner like that. "Serena…"

Lucario raised its weapon. The sun had finally begun to rise on the distant horizon, though none of them could see it from their position. The sky was beginning to turn from dark black to light purple and orange. Fennekin opened its eyes blearily and saw just enough to tell that Serena was about to be hurt badly, possibly killed. At that moment, its blood pressure spiked, its ears shot up, and it let loose a battle cry the likes of which Serena had never heard.

"What?!" Korrina remarked in disbelief as Fennekin shot across the battlefield like a bullet, cloaked in a mane of fire as it struck Lucario and knocked it away from Serena.

"F-Fennekin?!" Serena stammered, just as surprised as Korrina was. Fennekin landed in front of her, growling angrily at Lucario as it stood its ground, maintain a faint orange aura around its body as it did so.

"What was that?!" Ash cried in surprise.

"I think that was Flame Charge!" Clemont answered. "And…that must be Fennekin's Blaze, as well!"

"Blaze…?" Serena murmured to herself, faintly remembering the ability's description from her Pokedex. "Fennekin…"

"Well, I have to admit, I'm impressed." Korrina admitted. "Not like it's going to make any difference, though. Lucario!"

Lucario nodded, shaking off its own shock at Fennekin's sudden burst of power and raising its weapon yet again. Fennekin stood its ground as the club was brought down, and a second before it made contact, a brilliant white light engulfed the small Fox Pokémon, repelling Lucario's attack and causing it to stagger backward.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding…!" Korrina exclaimed in disbelief.

"No way! Fennekin's - !" Ash began, but was swiftly cut off by Seth.

"It's evolving!"

Serena merely stared on in awe as she watched Fennekin within the white glow as it quickly morphed into something…else. A few seconds later, the glow dissipated, and in Fennekin's place was a somewhat larger fox, now standing upright, and with a much broader air of respect and power about it. As soon as it emerged from the evolutionary glow, it quickly scanned the ground and picked up a twig, examining it briefly before stuffing it into its tail, apparently satisfied with it.

"Fenne…kin…?" Serena said slowly, almost a question to her newly evolved partner. It turned back to look at her reassuringly, a massive smile present on its face.

"Braiiixen!" The Pokémon replied triumphantly.

* * *

_I almost just kept going and finished everything up in this chapter. But I figured it was the right time to take a break in the action instead, instead of trying to rush all of the resolution that's going to happen after this in order to fit into the same chapter as all this. _

_As usual, I hope you all enjoyed! I'll be back before Thanksgiving with the next update, for my American readers!_


	11. Chapter 11: Power of Feelings

_Hey guys! Finally managed to get a quicker update out for once. _

_Don't have much to say as this is a direct follow-up from last time, so I just hope you all enjoy!_

* * *

Silence hung in the air for a moment as everyone recovered from the shock of watching Fennekin suddenly evolve right in the midst of battle. Korrina was the first to recover.

"It doesn't matter if it evolved! Lucario, use Bone Rush!"

Lucario obeyed at once, dashing forward and raising its bone club once again to strike at the newly-evolved Braixen standing between itself and Serena. Braixen, however, appeared to have anticipated Korrina's order, and pulled out the twig it had stuffed into its tail only moments earlier.

"What's it doing?!" Bonnie cried in shock as Braixen appeared to be allowing Lucario to attack it head-on.

"That's how a Braixen fights." Seth answered knowingly, his expression slowly turning into a smile. "I think those two might actually be able to win this!"

Ash watched on in awe as Braixen stared down the oncoming Lucario, its smile never fading as the orange Blaze aura persisted around its body. Just before Lucario's attack made contact, Braixen's twig wand suddenly caught fire, and a second later, a wave of flames surged out from it, seeming to appear from nowhere.

"Is that Flamethrower?!" Ash exclaimed in wonder as Lucario was blasted backward by the inferno.

"Looks like it." Seth confirmed. "Once a Fennekin evolves into a Braixen, it gains the ability to channel its elemental attacks through a wand, just like that one. I've heard that once a Braixen discovers a wand for itself, it becomes almost as precious to it as its own life."

"Wow…" Ash replied in shock, watching Braixen in wonder as it flashily twirled its wand around, allowing the Flamethrower attack to dissipate.

"Braixen…huh?" Serena remarked slowly, using the brief respite to pull out her Pokedex.

"_Braixen, the Fox Pokémon. Braixen is the evolved form of Fennekin. With friction produced from their tail fur, Braixen are able to set specific types of twigs on fire, and they frequently use these twigs when they charge into battle."_

Korrina gritted her teeth as Lucario climbed back to its feet, finally showing signs of damage. "This isn't over yet! Lucario, Aura Sphere!"

Serena narrowed her eyes. She knew that Braixen had taken its own initiative to protect her these last few minutes, and she was determined not to force it to continue battling on its own any longer, regardless of her own racked emotions. "All right, Braixen, use Hidden Power!"

"Zzzzennn!" Braixen cried, flourishing its wand in a wide arc in front of it. A handful of white energy balls materialized in the wand's wake and flew toward Lucario's attack at once.

The two blasts collided in midair, and at that moment, something triggered in Serena's mind, and she was suddenly brought back to the moment the previous afternoon when Seth and Korrina's battle had produced a similar dust cloud, the very same dust cloud that Korrina had used as cover to kidnap Pikachu and make her getaway with Lucario.

Serena clenched her fists in anger, the entirety of her emotions regarding the events of the last few days suddenly surging to the surface, and in that moment, she and Braixen connected. Trainer and Pokémon were now perfectly in sync, on the same wavelength of thought. Serena was determined to protect Ash and Pikachu, and Braixen was determined to make its trainer's wish a reality.

Serena forced herself to climb to her feet, despite her body howling in agony for her to stop. She brushed off her skirt and then met Korrina's gaze defiantly. "Okay, Braixen…let's finish this. Use Flame Charge!"

"Lucario, stop it with Power-Up Punch!"

Braixen charged forward surrounded by a cloak of fire, but Lucario was ready for it this time, and sent it reeling back with a quick jab to the chest right before its attack connected.

"Braixen!" Ash cried out as it flew back and hit the ground. Despite its evolution, and even its power boost from Blaze, it was clear that Mega Lucario was still on a different level entirely. It was also evident that had Mega Blaziken not already worn Lucario down, Braixen wouldn't have even stood a chance.

"Korrina…" Gurkinn grumbled, attempting to hold back his anger for Serena's sake.

"I've got to hand it to you, Serena! You and your Braixen definitely gave me a run for my money!" Korrina admitted arrogantly. "But now, it's over for you! Lucario, finish it with Aura Sphere!"

Serena held her ground, ignoring Korrina's taunts and gesturing to Braixen for one final attack. She knew her Pokémon was in just of bad of shape as she was. But if it didn't attack now, it was all over.

She gripped Pikachu tightly under her shoulder. "Braixen, use Flamethrower, now!"

Braixen's eyes shot open, and in an instant it was back on its feet. It twirled its wand in the air for half a second to build up energy, and then let loose with a full-strength stream of fire, channeling all of its remaining energy, including that which was brought on by Blaze, into this one attack.

Aura Sphere slammed into the Flamethrower, but neither side gave right away. Lucario continued to hold its palm out toward the attack, willing it to break through the river of flame standing between it and its target. But Braixen didn't give in, either. It gripped its wand with all of its might, and, as sweat poured down its face, it poured everything it had left into the attack.

Moments later, the Flamethrower attacked finally managed to push through, swallowing the Aura Sphere whole and continuing onward until it consumed Lucario as well, causing the Mega Evolved Pokémon to cry out in agony as it was finally brought down.

"Lucario!" Korrina cried out desperately, not wanting to believe that she had actually been defeated. "No…!"

The fire surrounding Lucario subsided a second later, and it hung there limply for a moment before falling to the ground, reverting back to its base form as it did so.

"Serena…" Clemont breathed slowly, as everyone stared at Serena and Braixen in disbelief for a moment.

"…You did it!" Ash declared triumphantly, breaking the nervous tension that had blanketed the group for the last few minutes. "You beat Korrina!"

"Yayyy!" Bonnie cheered happily, throwing her arms up into the air in celebration. "Serena, I never knew you were so strong!"

"Na-nana!" Dedenne added cheerfully.

"That was awesome." Seth praised, as he and the others made their way across the clearing to Serena's side, while Gurkinn approached Korrina and Lucario instead.

"Th-thanks, you guys…" Serena replied as a light blush appeared on her face, somewhat embarrassed by all the praise she was receiving. However, after a moment or two had passed, her body suddenly seemed to remember just how severe its injuries were, and she felt the temporary surge of strength she'd been going on suddenly drain away almost instantaneously. Her legs fell out from beneath her and she began to fall to the ground.

"Whoa, take it easy." Ash remarked softly, catching her by the shoulders mid-fall and repositioning her so that she was leaning on him for support. "You, uh…don't really look so good."

Serena felt her face heat up at once from the sudden closeness with Ash, and her throat went dry. Seth, Clemont, and Bonnie all noticed this and smiled to themselves.

"Korrina…" Gurkinn repeated grimly, shaking his head in disappointment as he watched her recall Lucario. "Was it really worth all of this? Truly?"

"You…you don't understand." Korrina replied shakily, avoiding his gaze. "All I was trying to do was help people and Pokémon to grow closer together…!"

"No. This was not the way to go about doing that." Gurkinn replied adamantly. "You should know better than that by now, Korrina. Relationships are not something that can be dictated or manufactured…they are the result of time, effort, and devotion. Only then can you truly grow closer to one another."

One part of Korrina's mind understood what he was saying, and knew that it was the truth. But another voice from deep inside her told her that he was wrong, and that she had to fight and get away from this place. "Grandfather…" She choked out, tears forming in her eyes as she mentally grappled with herself.

"Korrina…?" Ash began slowly, the rest of the group approaching her timidly. "Listen…I…I don't think you're really a bad person. If you listen to what Gurkinn's trying to tell you…I think you can change."

"A-Ash?" Korrina replied, not sure of what to say to him. She almost couldn't believe that he didn't blame her for what had happened. But then that other voice surged to the surface of her mind again. "No – no – you're wrong! You're all wrong! I – I have to – "

"What about Lucario?!" Seth spoke up suddenly, channeling some of his own experience from training a Pokémon to Mega Evolve. "Lucario's your friend, right? What would you do if somebody came to you and tried to put Lucario in one of your stupid machines?!"

Korrina's eyes widened. "He is right. I've watched you and Lucario grow together." Gurkinn added. "This…this is not you, Korrina. Come back to us. If not for my sake, then for Lucario's, as well as all of your other Pokémon."

"I…no…you don't – understand - !" Korrina stammered, putting her hands to her head as her thoughts began to feel fuzzy. It quickly began more and more difficult to form a coherent thought, and she thought that she was going to pass out, or worse, when suddenly –

All of a sudden, something seemed to shatter in Korrina's mind. She opened her eyes and found that her head was clear, and not only that, she couldn't seem to remember what exactly it was that had motivated her to conspire with the hooded man in the first place.

She raised her head and was met with the concerned gazes of people whom she recognized above everything else as her friends. "Grandfather…Ash…I…"

"Hm?" Gurkinn murmured suspiciously.

"…I'm so sorry!" Korrina declared, bursting into tears on the spot as she regained her senses.

Everyone watching her found themselves at a loss for words at her seemingly sudden change of heart. However, it didn't take watching her cry for very long before they merely smiled at her sympathetically and accepted her at her word.

"Korrina." Gurkinn said comfortingly, approaching her and pulling her toward him, allowing her to cry unbidden into his chest.

Serena continued watching them with a confused sort of relief before noticing the weight pulling on the left side of her body and suddenly remembering that she had something very important of Ash's still in her possession.

"Oh…that's right." She spoke up softly, bringing the still-unconscious Pikachu forward and presenting it to Ash. "I think I've got something of yours, Ash."

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed, clearly ecstatic at the return of his partner. He took her from Serena's arms into his own, quickly noticing the poor shape that he was in from whatever Korrina had done to him earlier in the night. He then slowly and rather solemnly reached into his pack and produced a Poke Ball, recalling Pikachu into it a moment later. "Get a good rest, buddy…I'll get you fixed up before you know it."

Serena gasped quietly to herself, having never actually seen Pikachu's Poke Ball before, though she quickly thought better of asking Ash about it given their current situation.

"Is Pikachu gonna be okay…?" Bonnie squeaked sadly.

"…Yeah." Ash replied, grinning at her in assurance.

Bonnie smiled alongside Clemont at his reply, but Seth opted to turn his gaze to Serena. "I still can't believe you ran off alone like that…" He mused half-jokingly before regarding her injuries. "I guess I don't have to ask if you actually swum over here or not."

Serena smiled despite herself and shrugged her shoulders in reply. "I couldn't think of any other way to get over here by myself…that's all."

"But Serena…" Clemont protested, his voice and posture suddenly shifting into big-brother mode. "Even if it was for…for Pikachu…" He stumbled, almost saying 'Ash' before catching himself. "It was still completely reckless! Do you realize how lucky you are to even be alive right now?!"

Serena looked away, fully aware that everything he was saying was true. "Yeah…I know. It was dumb…"

"…Why?" Ash asked her simply after a few moments of silence. "Why did you try so hard to save Pikachu?"

Serena's throat tightened; she was afraid that Ash was going to ask her that sooner or later. "I…well…y-you and Pikachu are my friends. I didn't want to see you two get separated like that…I didn't think it was fair."

Ash regarded her silently for a moment before continuing. "Nobody's ever done something like that to save Pikachu before besides me."

At those words, Serena finally forced herself to look over at him, and she was instantly met with the most intense look she'd ever witnessed staring right back at her. She still had her arm around his neck for support, and so their faces were also much, much closer together than they'd ever been before. Serena noticed all of this at once and almost couldn't take it, but she fought to maintain her composure all the same.

"Thank you, Serena."

Ash wasn't sure what caused him to do what he did next, especially since he was consciously aware of the fact that he was the only thing keeping Serena from falling over, but for some reason, in the next moment, he shifted her weight on him slightly and awkwardly managed to pull her into a hug, which was made all the more intimate by the fact that was literally leaning on him support.

Serena almost couldn't believe what was happening. She felt her face turn red, almost convinced that it was going to stay that way after tonight, as Clemont and Bonnie grinned at each other proudly.

Seth watched them as well, and though his thoughts were slightly more troubled than Clemont or Bonnie's, he, too, couldn't help but break into a smile after a moment. _"Yeah…there's no way I can compete with that."_

As Ash held her like that, for much longer than he probably should have, he felt a resurgence of the same strange feeling he'd felt when he saw her running toward him with Pikachu in her arms and bruises covering her body. He couldn't explain it, and he'd certainly never felt it before, but it was present nonetheless, and he found that he couldn't help but enjoy it.

After what seemed like forever, he finally pulled back, once again awkwardly repositioning her arm so that it was around his neck for support again, and suddenly seemed to realize what he had just done. "Oh…sorry about that, Serena…"

Serena blinked, and for the first time, she caught on to the way Ash was acting. He'd certainly never acted this way around her before. This small bit of information gave her enough strength to finally open up her throat and say something back to him. "No…don't be."

Ash met her gaze in shock as the both of them subconsciously caught the same connotation between each other. Ash found that he couldn't think of anything to say back to that, and so he resorted to merely smiling clumsily and finally turning to regard Korrina, prompting the others to do the same.

She was pulling back from Gurkinn at last, and she seemed to have stopped crying, though a few stray tears still dotted her cheeks, and her eyes were puffy and red. "Ash…Serena…everyone. I don't know what to say…"

Everyone smiled back at her reassuringly, and Ash shook his head. "It's okay, Korrina."

Gurkinn nodded down at her, the sun finally beginning to rise over the horizon. "I'm sure you all have much to discuss. But I'm sure that it can wait until later." He gestured for them to follow him. "Come. You can all stay here and get some much-needed rest. We can talk about everything after that."

Korrina hesitated a moment before nodding back to him in agreement, along with Ash and everyone else. "…All right. Let's go."

* * *

_Finally, bringing the Korrina arc to an end, more or less. I also realized with this one how easy I've had it so far; only writing shippy stuff for Serena is extremely easy compared to the usual challenges of writing Pokemon romance and making it fit the characters - Serena's character is already practically made to ship Ash. But now that I've finally brought it around to Ash shipping her back...I just felt slightly out of practice, haha. Hopefully it didn't show too much!_

_Hope you all enjoyed this one! See you all next time!_


	12. Chapter 12: At A Crossroads

_Hey guys! Sorry this one's kinda late, had holiday stuff going on this week. But hey, arc 1 cleared! So that's something._

_I don't think I'm going to be able to finish this by Christmas like I wanted to...hopefully my schedule will allow me to keep writing on it after the holidays are over. There's a chance I might not be able to write at some point after the new year, and in anticipation of that I was projecting this to end before Christmas just to be safe...but my lazy scheduling has kept that from happening. We'll see what happens._

_At any rate, hope you guys enjoy!_

* * *

True to Gurkinn's word, everyone stayed on the island for what little remained of the night, and they ended up sleeping through the entire morning as well. By the time they had all awoken, eaten, and finished getting ready, the afternoon sun had already claimed the sky as its own.

"So…what exactly is this place?" Clemont inquired as Gurkinn led them into the main body of the central tower itself. He had gathered them all together without an explanation, and instead of interrogating Korrina right then and there, he had instead begun to lead them here.

"The history of the Tower of Mastery stretches back to the very first time humans and Pokémon were able to come together to produce Mega Evolution." Gurkinn explained as they continued down the bare entrance hall. "It is said that this island is the same place where a trainer and his Lucario once discovered a Key Stone and Mega Stone. Together, they used these items to produce the world's first recorded Mega Evolution."

"Wow…" Ash breathed in awe.

"Piika…" Pikachu echoed from its usual perch on Ash's shoulder. Despite the fact that they hadn't made it back to the Pokémon Center yet, a long night's rest had done wonders for it regardless. It wasn't back to full strength yet, but Ash wasn't about to force it to stay inside of its Poke Ball for any longer than necessary, a notion which Pikachu wholeheartedly agreed with.

"Ever since then, it has become tradition in our family for each child chosen to be Gym Leader to be trained with a Lucario, and to eventually receive a Lucarionite, as well, when they are deemed ready. For you see…our family sees Mega Lucario as the guardian of Mega Evolution itself."

As Gurkinn spoke, the group emerged into the central chamber, the center of which was dominated by an enormous statue of none other than a Mega Lucario, with a circular staircase winding up to the top around the wall, making a cylindrical perimeter of sorts around the statue.

"Oh, wow…it's huge!" Bonnie exclaimed upon seeing the massive work of art.

"Na-na-na...!" Dedenne chirped in wonder.

"I've heard stories about this place…" Seth murmured slowly, also somewhat taken aback by the majesty of Lucario's likeness. "I'd always hoped I'd get to come here in person someday."

Korrina eyed him strangely for a moment before speaking up. "That reminds me…you never did tell us where you got your Key Stone from, did you?"

"Now that you mention it…" Serena remarked, thinking back to when she'd first met Seth in the city. "She's right."

"That's not exactly something you'd see just anyone carrying around." Clemont added suspiciously.

Seth met their eyes hesitantly before replying. "Yeah, I guess it is kinda unusual, isn't it? I don't know what to tell you, though…I'm from Dewford Town in Hoenn. There's a place near there called Granite Cave, and it's famous for the rare rocks and stones you can find in there." He paused for a moment before continuing. "It's the place where I caught my first Pokémon, an Aron, when I was just starting out as a trainer."

Ash's eyes widened. "An Aron? Then that means – "

Seth nodded in affirmation. "Yep, that's right. Aggron's been with me since the very beginning."

"Wow…that's amazing." Serena remarked, yet again being impressed by the bond between a trainer and his first Pokémon, just as she had been and continued to be with Ash and Pikachu.

"Anyway…before I actually left on my journey, me and Aron always used to go to the cave and practice battling the wild Pokémon that lived there. Sometimes we'd find rare stones and bring them back to town…but one day we found something else." Seth held up his Mega Ring to indicate what he was referring to, the Key Stone sparkling magnificently inside of it.

"Just…like that?" Korrina asked, a hint of skepticism in her voice.

Seth nodded, chuckling as he did so. "Yep. The Key Stone and Aggronite were right next to each other, embedded in stone…kind of like how it was in your story, actually." He remarked, regarding Gurkinn as he spoke. "Everyone's always told me how lucky we were to find them so easily, but I guess for us it's never really been that big of a deal. We weren't even able to use the Mega Stone until recently, anyway…until now, the two stones have always been more of a keepsake for me and Aggron than anything."

"I see…" Gurkinn remarked.

"But…you said you're from Hoenn?" Ash asked. "What are you doing all the way out here in Kalos?"

"Probably the same thing you are." Seth shot back jokingly. "Well…actually, I did want to come to Kalos after trying my hand at the Hoenn League. Ever since I'd heard the stories about Mega Evolution's history being tied to this place, I've wanted to come and check it out."

"Well, if that's what you're looking for, then you've definitely come to the right place!" Korrina remarked, attempting to project an aura of cheerfulness to conceal her true feelings.

"Sure seems like it!" Seth joked back, laughing with her for a moment before turning serious. "But…speaking of people's pasts…"

Korrina's face fell as she realized what he was getting at, and the mood in the room seemed to darken almost at once. Gurkinn regarded her with a solemn but unwavering gaze. "Korrina. I think it is time you told us what happened to you. And there is no better place to clear your conscience than here, in this very chamber."

She hesitated for a moment before turning to regard the group, a regretful look on her face. "…Okay."

* * *

Korrina explained to them about her trip to the caves south of Ambrette Town to find her Lucarionite, and how the first part of the journey had indeed gone according to plan. But then she mentioned that on her way back, she had encountered the man in the hood that she had mentioned before.

She'd never seen his face, or at least, she didn't remember it if she did. He had begun to speak to her about his plans to facilitate Mega Evolution for all Pokémon, that it was their destiny to achieve such power, and that weak-willed trainers were holding most, if not all, Pokémon back from reaching their true potential. She explained how he had somehow convinced her of this objective as well, though she didn't specifically remember much about that part. He had then very quickly aided her and Lucario in mastering Mega Evolution before sending her back to Shalour City to find a trainer or two at the Gym to test their device on.

"And then, well…" Korrina trailed off, not meeting Ash's gaze.

"You ran into us, outside of town." Serena finished for her.

"…Yeah." Korrina admitted. "Ash and Pikachu left such an impression on me after our battle that day…I just couldn't help myself…"

The entire room was silent for a few moments as everybody processed what she had told them. Korrina's eyes were locked to the ground, and she appeared to be on the verge of tears.

But then Gurkinn suddenly stepped forward and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Well, Korrina, it sounds to me as if this man you encountered did something to alter your perceptions and your thoughts without you realizing it. If you ask me, you are not the one at fault here. Not at all."

Korrina's eyes shot up at his words, not believing what she was hearing. "Grandfather…!"

"And I told you yesterday – I don't think you're a bad person, either!" Ash added happily, smiling at her encouragingly. "In fact, I think you're our friend. What about you, buddy?"

"Pika pika!" Pikachu chimed in agreement.

"If you ask me, the one that's really at fault is that guy you met!" Clemont remarked, as Serena and Bonnie nodded in agreement. "It could've happened to any of us!"

"You guys…" Korrina uttered, not feeling worthy of the forgiveness she was receiving. "…Thank you! I'm sorry for…for everything that happened!"

"Ah, don't worry about it." Ash said nonchalantly. "We're all friends now, so it doesn't really matter anymore anyway!"

At that, Korrina couldn't hold back any longer. She threw herself into Gurkinn's arms and let the tears flow freely from her eyes as she let out all the emotions that had built up inside of her.

"Everything's going to be all right." Gurkinn murmured comfortingly after a few moments of silence. "I promise."

Korrina pulled back slowly, looked up at him gratefully, and nodded.

"So…" Bonnie spoke up hesitantly a minute or two later, not wanting to disrupt the atmosphere of what was going on, but also fully aware that everyone was more or less waiting around for something to happen at this point. "What are we gonna do now? Are you gonna challenge Korrina to a Gym Battle?"

"Um…" Ash answered slowly as he looked over at Korrina and Gurkinn, unsure if he should even make the request or not.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline on Korrina's behalf." Gurkinn spoke up preemptively, sensing Ash's confusion. "Given what has happened here, I think it is best if the Gym were to close down temporarily."

Seth's eyes widened in surprise, as he had been planning to challenge the Gym as well. "Close down, huh…? So what are you gonna do instead?"

"I should think it is obvious." Gurkinn replied knowingly, a malicious glint in his eye. "I am going to attempt to track down whoever it was that manipulated Korrina…and deal with him, before someone else falls into the same trap my granddaughter did."

"Do you think we could give you a hand with that?" Clemont requested, a serious, almost defiant look on his face. "As a Gym Leader myself, I think – "

"No, that's quite all right." Gurkinn answered curtly, grinning down at Clemont gratefully. "You should continue on your journey and let me handle this. Trust me…I have more than one method in mind of tracking this man down." He turned to regard the rest of them, sans Korrina. "That being said…if you do happen to come across anything suspicious on your travels, I would appreciate it if you would let me or Korrina know. You know where to contact us."

Ash nodded. "'Course we will."

"We promise." Serena added.

Gurkinn nodded to them. "Thank you all. And thank you again for your help in stopping Korrina. But now I believe it is time you got going…the two of us have much to prepare for."

"Right." Seth acknowledged, and the five of them turned and began to make their way out of the tower.

"Goodbye, you guys!" Ash called out behind him, raising his hand in farewell.

"Pika piii!" Pikachu cried.

"Until next time!" Serena added, waving goodbye as well.

"Byeeee, Korrina!" Bonnie squeaked happily.

"Oh, and Korrina – when the Gym does reopen…" Ash began, turning back to meet Korrina's gaze. "I'm taking you and Lucario down, Mega Evolution or not!"

Korrina hesitated a moment, still getting over the fact that he wasn't holding a grudge against her for how she had treated him and Pikachu. But then she merely smiled to herself and glared back at him defiantly, a smile on her face. "We'll just have to see about that!"

* * *

Once the group had made their way down to the beach, they found that the bridge back to Shalour City was already open for them. They made their way across and watched it sink behind them, silently wondering to themselves when it was ever going to open for challengers again.

"Well…" Seth began slowly after the five had found their way back to the city, away from the beach. "Guess this is where I say goodbye, too."

"Seth - ?" Serena started before catching herself. She knew that there wasn't really any reason for him to stay with them any longer, and yet there was a part of her that still wanted him to regardless.

"If the Shalour Gym's shut down for now, then it's time for me to get going." Seth explained. "I came here to give the Kalos League a shot, and to learn more about Mega Evolution…and for now I'm not gonna be able to do either of those."

"Where are you going to go from here, then?" Clemont asked curiously.

"Don't know…maybe I'll head over to Anistar City, in the mountains. It seems like that'd be my next best bet for info on Mega Stones and stuff. And there's a couple of Gyms over in that direction, too…"

"Speaking of towns, where are WE going next?" Bonnie spoke up pointedly. Clemont and Serena's eyes drifted over to Ash, who caught their meaning and laughed nervously.

"Actually, I've got no idea." He admitted.

"Typical…" Bonnie moaned.

"If you're just looking to go for another Gym, you should probably head for Coumarine City." Seth advised. "It's along the north coast, back toward Lumiose City."

"Coumarine City, huh…?" Ash debated as Serena hastily pulled out her map to double-check Seth's information.

"According to this, it's the closest city to us besides Geosenge Town." Serena explained.

"Which is going backwards, in case you forgot!" Bonnie chided, glaring at Ash impatiently.

"Hey, I know that!" Ash shot back playfully. "All right, then I guess we're going to Coumarine City next!"

"Sounds good to me. I hear they've got a really high-tech monorail system there!" Clemont remarked wistfully.

Seth chuckled at the group's antics before taking a few haphazard steps away from them. "All right, then…guess that's that. When you see Ramos, the Gym Leader there, could you tell him that me and Aggron are doing great with our Mega Evolution training?"

"Sure thing!" Ash assured him.

Seth grinned back at him. "Thanks. Well…it was great meeting you guys! Maybe we'll run into each other again sometime."

"Yeah! That'd be great!" Bonnie chirped.

"Even if we don't, I'll be waiting for you at the Kalos League." Ash challenged, a blazing look sparking to life in his eyes.

Seth caught wind of his vigor and met it with his own. "You'll be waiting for _me_? Sure it won't be the other way around?"

The two burgeoning rivals stared each other down defiantly for a moment before shaking hands to signify their farewell. Seth then finally turned to leave, but before he took even ten steps, he looked back over his shoulder at Serena. "Remember what's important to you. Don't lose sight of it." He grinned at her. "Otherwise, you'll just be letting me down."

Serena opened her mouth to reply, but she couldn't find her voice. And with that, Seth turned back toward the road and disappeared into the depths of the city, leaving Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie feeling somewhat confused, and Serena feeling something at the crossroads of anxiety and impatience.

* * *

_I know this seems kind of random, but I actually want to take a minute and just say thanks to everyone who reads these, especially you guys who leave reviews. I know I never really answer back when people review ( tip - if you REALLY have a question you want answered, PM me) but I appreciate every single view, follow, favorite, and review I receive. Without you guys, who read and enjoy my stuff, there'd be no reason for me to write these at all, other than to kill time or to simply enjoy myself. Knowing that I have at least a few people that read what I put out is all it takes for me to say that it's worth it. I write because I enjoy it, yeah, but much more than that it's because I want to put stuff out that makes people think and that people can enjoy, because those are the reasons I enjoy the media that I follow, and I just want to contribute to that pool of stuff in my own way, even if it's just on a free website like this._

_...Whoa, I kinda went off on a thing there. Sorry! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this one. If you thought there was no shipping here, just wait 'till the next chapter..._


	13. Chapter 13: Ash

_Hey guys! Hope you enjoy this one. I rewrote the last part of it more than once to try and get it exactly right, so I hope you all like it!_

* * *

After stopping to give their Pokémon a much-needed rest at the Shalour Pokémon Center, the four of them went ahead with their plan and decided to set off for Coumarine City. Serena had double-checked the map and found that the route leading there was directly east of town. And so, with that information in mind, they wasted no time in leaving the city and getting back on the road.

"Are you sure you're feeling all right, Serena?" Ash prodded for what seemed like the tenth time since that morning.

"I told you, I'm fine. Really!" Serena insisted cheerfully, due in part to finally having her hat back, as Ash had actually forgotten to return it to her the night they had stayed with Gurkinn on the island.

"But…your injuries looked pretty bad yesterday…"

"Come on, Ash." Clemont interrupted, a knowing look on his face. "Don't you think we should take her word for it?"

Ash pondered his words briefly before looking over and scanning Serena, who certainly appeared to be nearly fully recovered from the day before. "…Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You don't have to worry so much about me, you know." Serena remarked, giggling to herself a bit at Ash's obvious concern for her.

"I know." Ash replied, smiling at her as he regained some of his usual vigor. "Sorry for acting so weird all of a sudden."

"No, it's fine." Serena insisted, causing Bonnie to smile gleefully at the two of them.

"Ash liikes Seree-na! Ash liikes Seree-na!" She chirped in a sing-song voice.

"B-Bonnie!" Serena protested, her face turning red in an instant as she turned away from Ash, whose face merely showed confusion.

"What?" Bonnie answered coyly, turning to face Serena. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Come on, Bonnie." Clemont urged, attempting to spare Serena the embarrassment of having a conversation like this now. "Why don't we leave them alone for now? I'm sure they're both still shaken up about what happened yesterday…"

"Pika! Pi-ka-chu!" Pikachu piped up happily, causing a grin to sprout on Ash's face.

"Actually, Pikachu says he's feeling great! No problems on our end." Ash remarked.

"So…what?" Bonnie continued, ignoring Clemont's words completely and taking a few steps toward Ash. "You _do_ like Serena, don't you?"

"Bonnie!" Clemont scolded, but the words had already been said. Serena's face turned even redder than it already was and she felt her throat dry up as she lost the urge to speak.

"…What do you mean?" Ash replied, blinking as he attempted to figure out what she meant. "Of course I – "

As he spoke, he allowed his eyes to drift over to her, even as she desperately attempted to keep her face turned away from his. He couldn't quite tell that she was blushing, but what he did see was the golden-brown mane of hair flowing down her back, as well as the side of her face, and for some reason, he found that it was difficult for him to finish his sentence after that.

"I…" He stammered, suddenly grappling with this newfound feeling in his chest.

"…Ash?" Clemont asked cautiously, looking back and forth between him and Serena.

Ash swallowed, pushing whatever the odd feeling was deep down into his stomach for the time being. "…I mean, yeah. 'Course I like Serena!"

Serena's eyes widened and she forced herself to turn back to look at him. She found him smiling back at her warmly, the same way he always seemed to whenever she spoke to him. "I mean, we're friends, aren't we?"

Serena's stomach seemed to flip as he spoke those words, and she found that she couldn't help but smile back at him. "Y-yeah…of course we're friends!"

Clemont sighed in exasperation, fully aware that it was nothing other than Ash's denseness that had saved that train of thought from becoming much more serious. "Hey, don't forget about us!"

"Yeah!" Bonnie chimed in, also choosing to let the topic of Ash and Serena's feelings go for the time being. "We're _all_ friends! Not just you two!"

"Of course!" Ash agreed, smiling back at the two of them.

"But you know…" Serena began, shooting Ash a devious look, one which he caught and seemed to understand. "If you're really our friends…"

"Then you're gonna have to keep up with us!" Ash exclaimed, just as he and Serena took off running down the road.

"H-hey! Wait!" Bonnie cried, as she and Clemont were literally left in the dust. "That's not fair – come on, big brother! We have to catch them!"

"Bonnie, wait for me!" Clemont rasped as Bonnie took off after Ash and Serena, leaving Clemont to desperately attempt to keep pace with the three of them.

And, as Ash and Serena continued to sprint away from Bonnie, laughing amongst themselves as they ran, Ash couldn't help but remember that strange feeling in his stomach.

* * *

That night, they ended up deciding to camp out in the forest, something they hadn't been forced to do for quite some time. After setting up their campsite and having some vegetable stew for dinner courtesy of Clemont, the four of them retreated to their separate activities for the remainder of the evening. Clemont sat by the campfire and busied himself working on another of his inventions, Bonnie took to playing with Dedenne, Serena decided to spend some time near her tent getting better acquainted with Braixen, and Ash had taken a walk out in the nearby field with Pikachu.

"Na na-nana!" Dedenne squeaked, running from Bonnie as she kept up her pursuit.

"I'm gonna get you this time!" Bonnie declared, a playful sort of malice in her voice as she reached out her arms toward her quarry.

"Na-na-na!" Dedenne taunted, looking back over its shoulder for a moment to catch a glimpse of her. In doing so, however, it ended up losing track of where it was going, deviating from its course slightly. Before either of them realized what had happened, Dedenne had run forward and crashed into Clemont's incomplete project.

"Dedenne!" Clemont exclaimed in shock, leaping up from the ground as the small lump of steel and wires fell over onto its side and began sparking. "Try to watch where you're going next time! You might accidentally hurt yourself…"

"Na-na…" Dedenne affirmed, nodding sadly as it wrinkled its nose in an attempt to make it stop throbbing.

"It's okay, Dedenne." Bonnie remarked, coming up beside the small Pokémon and catching Clemont's gaze. "I'm sure it wasn't anything that important!"

Clemont opened his mouth to fire back a retort, but caught himself before the words escaped his throat. Instead, he slowly lowered himself down to the ground to sit back down, patting the dirt next to him as he did so to indicate Bonnie to come join him. "Hey, uh…come over here for a minute. There's something I want to ask you about."

Bonnie frowned at him slightly, but obliged anyway after a moment of hesitation. "What is it?"

"Is something wrong with you tonight?" Clemont asked, blurting it out a bit faster than he had planned. He instantly realized this and looked over at her to attempt damage control, and was met with the sight of her glaring over at him with hurt in her eyes. He sighed and decided to keep going. "I mean…first there was the business with Ash and Serena earlier. You know you shouldn't be talking about that stuff around Ash. It makes Serena uncomfortable. Then at dinner tonight, you hardly ate anything…I know you hate vegetables, but that's an excuse to starve yourself. And…just now…" He trailed off, looking down to his toppled, half-finished invention, which he grabbed after a moment and began inspecting it for damage before setting it back on the ground right side up.

Bonnie was quiet for a long time after he finished, which was unusual for her. When she finally answered, Clemont was surprised at how concerned she sounded. "I'm sorry, big brother. I think I'm just worried about Serena…that's all."

"Worried?" Clemont pressed, genuinely confused as to what she meant.

Bonnie nodded slowly. "Mm-hmm. She just seems so happy when she's around Ash…and I think he feels the same way. So…why don't they just tell each other?"

"Well…" Clemont began, before silently realizing that he didn't actually have much of an answer for her. He had never been with anybody before himself, so he wasn't exactly the best person to be coming to for an explanation about things like this. "I think what's important is just what you said. Serena seems happy, doesn't she? So why worry about what she _could_ be doing? She's clearly happy enough as it is right now." He paused for a moment. "Maybe she's just not ready to take that next step yet."

"Yeah, but…" Bonnie protested, trying to find a way to explain the frustration she was feeling on her friend's behalf. "I just don't think it's fair. Ash and Serena are friends! They should be able to talk about this stuff together!"

Clemont couldn't help but laugh at his younger sister's child-like sense of enthusiasm. "Yeah, you're right. They should be able to…"

The two of them looked over at Ash, across the clearing, still out in the field by himself, sans Pikachu, ever present on his shoulder as always. In their travels together, the two siblings had come to realize that they had been seeing Ash and Serena more and more as an extension of their own family than anything else. Specifically, Clemont saw Ash almost as the brother he'd never had, while Bonnie saw Serena as the perfect older sister she could look up to. _"Maybe that's why we're feeling the way we are right now…"_ Clemont thought to himself.

* * *

Meanwhile, over in the large, empty field, Ash found himself staring up at the half moon hanging lazily up in the night sky, unable to stop thinking about the strange feeling he'd experienced twice now after looking at Serena a certain way.

"What's wrong with me, buddy…?" Ash mused quietly to his partner. "Why can't I get this out of my head?"

"Pii-ka…" Pikachu murmured back sadly, no more aware of the answer than Ash was.

The more he thought back over what had happened with Korrina, he found that his thoughts always ended up being drawn to Serena. He found himself realizing even more than he had originally just how much she'd stuck her neck out for him and Pikachu. And what was strangest of all was that he seemed to take pride in that fact. It made him feel warm inside to know that Serena cared that much about him, and he couldn't figure out why it was such a big deal to him.

Sure, his friends from the past had helped him out of more situations than he could count. Brock, Misty, Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, and Cilan had all been through thick and thin with him, not to mention all of the other friends he'd made that hadn't stuck around as long. Even Clemont and Bonnie, in the short time they'd known each other compared to the others, had helped him out on more than one occasion.

And that was precisely why Ash was having such a difficult time figuring out why it mattered so much to him when Serena did the same thing.

"_And that wasn't even the first time she's tried so hard to help me…" _He reminded himself. He recalled that the when they'd first run into each other at the Santalune Gym, he hadn't even remembered who she was, but she had. She had returned the backpack which he'd so carelessly left behind at the Gym to him and helped him prepare for his rematch with Viola. And ever since then, he began to realize, she had been doing nothing but attempting to help him along on his journey, to the point where it was only very recently that she'd even begun to think about her own goals and her own journey.

Ash's eyes widened as he arrived at that train of thought, and he brought his gaze down from the sky to the grass surrounding him. "Pikachu…how could I forget something like that? Actually…I probably didn't even catch it the first time." He admitted, chuckling at himself under his breath while Pikachu merely stared at him in confusion.

"Pi?"

"Don't you remember, buddy? Serena told me right after she started travelling with us…" Ash began, a smile creeping onto his face as he allowed himself to go back to that day, all those months ago. "She said that the whole reason she set off on her journey…was so that she could meet me again. And I didn't even remember who she was!"

"Pii-ka-chuuu…" Pikachu murmured sadly.

They let the silence hang in the air for a while, both of them continuing to contemplate Ash's dilemma. For Ash, though, it slowly seemed to be becoming clearer in his head now.

"Hey…buddy? Can I tell you something?"

"Pika! Pikachu!" Pikachu chirped at once, eager to help out its trainer.

"I don't really know what's going on with me. You know I'm not good with stuff like this." Ash admitted, his voice shaking a little as he continued. "But…I think Serena's…really important to me now." He looked down at his hands and clenched his fists in frustration. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say…"

"Pii-ka! Pi-ka! Pi-ka-chuu!" Pikachu spoke up insistently, trying to get across that it understood what Ash was trying to say.

"…Thanks, buddy. I guess maybe it isn't so hard for you to understand, after all, is it?" Ash mused, realizing that aside from the fact that trainer and Pokémon usually shared strong feelings such as these, Serena was also directly responsible for saving Pikachu from being kidnapped, possibly from being killed – and Pikachu knew it.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps approaching from behind, and Ash turned to see none other than Serena walking up to them in her pajamas, a soft smile present on her face. "Hey, you two all right out here?"

"Yeah, we're fine. Just talking about some stuff." Ash replied warmly.

"Clemont and Bonnie just went to bed…I thought I'd come out here and tell you guys so you wouldn't be the last ones up."

Ash smiled back at her. "Okay. Guess we should go to bed too then, huh, buddy?"

"Pii-ka!" Pikachu agreed, jumping down from Ash's shoulder and taking off back toward the camp on its own.

Ash watched his partner for a moment before beginning to walk back after him. Serena was about to turn and head back as well, but before was able to, she found Ash only a few inches in front of her. He was slightly off to the side, though that didn't really matter to either one of them, for they quickly found that the atmosphere between them had changed completely with the departure of Pikachu.

Ash froze up as well, unable to take his eyes off of her. He saw the moon reflected in her sapphire-blue eyes as she stared back at him, and both of their mouths fell open slightly, almost as if in shock. He had never really payed that much attention to what she looked like, but as he looked at her now, bathed in the glow of the moon, he found that she had taken on an entirely new quality in his mind.

Serena, on the other hand, had absolutely noticed Ash's appearance before now, but even so, it didn't do much to detract from the intimate moment she was suddenly finding herself experiencing. Ash had left his hat with the rest of his things earlier that night, so his hair was ruffled and unkempt, and his jacket was unzipped, revealing the black T-shirt he wore underneath it. And, like Ash, she could see the moon bouncing off of his maple-brown eyes, and the entirety of his figure, compounded by how close he was to her, almost caused her to physically recoil from him.

They blinked, seemingly in unison with each other, and the rest of the world seemed to melt away. Ash's mind was running a mile a minute, asking himself question after question in an attempt to explain what was happening, but to his surprise he found that his thoughts seemed far out of reach, and that it was far easier to ignore what was going on in his head and merely indulge in the moment. Serena, meanwhile, had a better idea of what was going on than Ash, but similarly chose to ignore her conscious mind and remain standing there silently.

The two of them blinked again, and Serena, urged on by her subconscious, began to lean slightly closer toward Ash. She took a step forward, nearly bringing the two of them into direct contact with each other whilst Ash merely continued staring at her in wonder, unable to summon the strength necessary to move on his own –

_BOOM!_

The two of them physically jumped backed away from each other, sharing an awkward stare for a second before turning back to the campsite to find a plume of smoke rising from a small device on the ground near Clemont and Bonnie's tent.

"Oh, no – not again!" Clemont moaned in exasperation as he emerged from the tent a moment later with Bonnie by his side, looking bleary-eyed and tired.

"I told you we didn't need an alarm clock, big brother…"

Ash and Serena remained staring for a second before both bursting in laughter despite themselves. By the time Clemont and Bonnie had calmed down and returned to bed, the situation which they'd found themselves in only minutes before seemed almost like fiction to them.

"Well, uh…" Serena spoke up awkwardly, turning back to face Ash with a nervous smile on her face. "…good night."

Ash hesitated for a moment, and then nodded back at her. "Good night."

* * *

_Oh, **CLEMONT**. You and your inventions...:3_

_Honestly, if you people have stuck around for twelve chapters of this thing with hardly any mention of Amourshipping (Clemont and Bonnie aside), I don't think there's much I can do to lose you now. So it's my hope that from here on out the payoff is as good as you have been hoping it would be. Until next time, have a good weekend guys!_


	14. Chapter 14: Winter's Approach, Part I

_Hey guys! A slightly shorter chapter than usual this time, in an attempt to ease us out of the drama of the last few chapters...hope you all enjoy!_

* * *

The remainder of their trip to Coumarine City passed without consequence, for the most part, not that any of them had any complaints about that. Neither Ash nor Serena had brought up their brief encounter under the moon that night to anyone since it had happened, especially not to each other. In fact, the two of them seemed to have forgotten about the events that had taken place between them since arriving in Shalour City altogether. And, given what Clemont had told Bonnie regarding their situation, things between the four of them seemed to have gone back to normal, with the possible exception of Ash and Serena acting slightly more friendly toward each other than usual.

The one thing that did seem to be behaving out of the ordinary was the weather. Following the day they left Shalour City, the temperature seemed to dip lower and lower with each passing night, until finally Serena decided that they were all going to buy new clothes once they got into town.

"Brrrr…" Bonnie shivered as the four of them made their way into the city. "It's _soooo cooold_!"

"It's all right, Bonnie…" Clemont assured her, though he, too, had his arms wrapped around himself and appeared to be taking the cold temperature even worse than she was. "Once we g-get to the Pokémon Center, we can use the h-heater in our room…"

"So this is Coumarine City, huh…?" Ash mused wistfully, attempting to scan the area around him through the low fog that had rolled in along with the subzero temperature that morning. "I can't see a thing…"

"I don't think this is normal…the guide didn't say anything about weather like this." Serena remarked, also making a failed attempt to see through the haze covering the streets. "Although, we _are _right next to the ocean…"

As they continued making their way into town, they found that the fog slowly began to peel away, eventually getting to the point where they could see well enough to get around, though it remained looming overhead all the same.

"So, where should we head to first, then?" Clemont asked as they came upon a four-way intersection in the road.

"Well…" Serena began slowly, pulling out her electronic guide for reference. "It looks like the Pokémon Center and the Gym are both up the mountain, which means we'd have to take the monorail to get there." She looked up above them for a moment and squinted, presumably where the hillcrest section of the city should have been located, though she couldn't make it out due to the fog.

"Sounds good to me!" Ash remarked, firing up at once.

"Yeah! I can't wait to get a look at that monorail system!" Clemont added excitedly.

"Buuuut…" Serena continued, shooting both of them pointed looks before going on. "All of the shops and stores are down here on this level."

"That sounds good!" Bonnie piped up, her teeth chattering as she spoke. "I can't stay in these clothes for even one more hour!"

Serena nodded down at her. "I think we should go shopping for new clothes first! Then we can head up to the hillcrest section and settle in for the day."

"Aww…shopping…?" Ash grumbled, and Clemont's expression betrayed a similar sentiment.

"Oh, come on, you guys!" Serena prodded, grabbing Ash's hand without realizing what she was doing and beginning to drag him off. "It'll be fun!"

"But…" Ash began, but between knowing better than to argue with a girl about something like this and being acutely aware that Serena was more or less holding his hand, any further protest he might've had died in his throat, and he lowered his head meekly a moment later and sighed in submission.

"Come on, big brother!" Bonnie insisted, pushing him from behind down the road behind Ash and Serena. "You too!"

"Bonnie…but…" Clemont argued faintly. "I wanted to see the monorail…"

* * *

Meanwhile, in Cyllage City, Seth had recently woken up from his stay at the Pokémon Center the previous night, and was just now departing the facility and preparing to leave town. As he did so, however, he failed to notice that he was being followed by a mysterious-looking hooded man, whose only visible clothing was a burgundy-colored hooded trench coat with a tan shirt and pants on underneath.

He continued tailing the young trainer until he was a fair distance away from the city, certainly out of range of any reasonable people going about their business. At that point, he ceased masking his presence and began to close in on Seth from behind.

When he was only a few yards away, Seth heard him and turned to face him at once. "Who's there?!"

The hooded man stopped for a moment and smiled, choosing to hold his ground. Seth couldn't even see much of his face aside from his mouth and a bit of his nose poking out. "Well, hello there. You must be Seth."

Seth's eyes widened in surprise. "How do you know who I am?"

The man's smile grew wider. "It's just a hunch, actually. The word around town is that some trainer with a Mega Aggron came through not too long ago and swept Grant and his team with no problem at all. Not too many people around that would fit that description, wouldn't you say? And if I'm not mistaken…" The man uttered, raising a hand to point at Seth's left arm knowingly. "…isn't that a Key Stone you've got there?"

Seth narrowed his eyes at the strange man and began to back away from him.

"But none of that really matters now, anyway, seeing as how you just confirmed your identity to me."

"…What do you want?" Seth remarked, not letting his guard down.

The man's devious smile faded and fell into a slight frown. "Well…you see, it's quite a long story, actually. But essentially, I recently lost something of…great _value_ to me. I believe that you and your Aggron can serve as a suitable replacement."

Seth blinked, not understanding at first. "Me and Aggron…? What are you talking about?"

"I don't see the need to explain myself to you." The man replied curtly. "Why don't you have a battle with me instead? If you win, I'll let you go, no strings attached."

"…And if you win?" Seth inquired suspiciously.

"Well…" The man trailed off, chuckling to himself. "Let's cross that bridge when we come to it, shall we?"

Seth examined the man intently, getting the sense that he wasn't really being given a choice in the matter. "All right. I'll have a battle with you."

"Simple, one on one, is all I'm asking. One condition, though…" The man remarked suspiciously, casting his eyes toward Seth with an expression that almost seemed…hungry. "You have to use your Aggron for the battle."

"Fine. Let's just get it over with." Seth replied bluntly.

"As you wish…" The man remarked, reaching into his coat to retrieve a Poke Ball. "Gengar, let's go!"

Seth steeled himself as the Ghost/Poison type emerged before him, leering at him with the same arrogant expression that all Gengar shared. He knew that it was a less-than-favorable matchup for him, but he also knew that he had no choice. "Aggron, gimme a hand!"

"Rrrrooonnn!" Aggron roared as it emerged from its Ball, mostly aware of the situation at hand and determined not to let its trainer down.

The man smiled again, the same devious smile that he had worn at the beginning of their meeting. "Well, then, let the games begin. Gengar, use Hypnosis!"

* * *

"See, you guys?" Serena giggled as the four of them finally emerged from the last store. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I guess not…" Ash admitted. "And I guess it _is _kinda warm…"

"Chaaaa!" Pikachu cooed in agreement, snuggling up against Ash's new scarf affectionately.

"You guess not?" Clemont echoed incredulously. "You weren't the one that had to sit around the whole time while the rest of you picked out clothes for yourself!"

"But, Clemont…you said you didn't want to buy anything, remember?" Serena reminded him.

"Of course! That's because I already have clothes that are fully equipped to handle any meteorological phenomenon!"

"Oh, be quiet, big brother." Bonnie muttered. "Those great clothes of yours sure didn't stop you from complaining earlier, did they?"

At that, Clemont's face fell, and he was unable to devise a retort, prompting Ash and Serena to chuckle sympathetically. "Here." Ash said after his laughter had subsided, handing him a simple white scarf checkered with a silver design that gave the appearance of wires running through it. "I got you an extra one, just in case."

" …Thanks…" Clemont conceded after a moment of hesitation. He took the scarf from Ash and wrapped it around his neck snugly.

The rest of them had indeed purchased some new, more appropriate clothes for themselves to wear. Serena had replaced her sleeveless black shirt from before with a long-sleeved, black, button-up jacket, with a short-sleeved white shirt on underneath it. She had also gotten a pair of brown boots that came about halfway up to her knees, and a pink skirt with white cotton trim running along the bottom of it. She'd also added a couple of small, black bows to her hair, one on each side. Amidst her new wardrobe, however, she did decide to keep her old black stocking socks that ran up almost to the bottom of her skirt.

Bonnie had, at Clemont's prodding, decided to be somewhat less flashy than Serena was in buying an entirely new outfit, and had instead ending up getting a rather warm-looking, puffy tan-and-white winter coat to wear over her usual outfit, as well as some a smaller pair of the same style of boots as Serena. Ash had gone a similar way as Bonnie, trading out his usual short-sleeved jacket for a much warmer, long-sleeved blue one that he wore over the same black undershirt. He also got himself a white-and-blue scarf with a Poke Ball design on the ends of it.

"I don't know, though…" Serena murmured worriedly to herself, looking up at her pink hat anxiously.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked, his interest piqued, as Clemont and Bonnie looked over, as well.

"I can't decide if I should keep wearing my hat or not…" She admitted, fully aware that it didn't really match her new outfit that much, but also remembering that it was her mother who had indirectly recommended it for her the day she'd left for her journey. "I mean…I really like it, but…" She sighed, unable to form a decisive opinion. "What do you guys think?"

The three of them watched her as she removed the hat from her head and stood there for a moment, then put it back on again, allowing them to compare the two looks themselves.

"I don't know, Serena…" Clemont deduced slowly. "I think they both look fine."

"Yeah!" Bonnie agreed happily. "You'd look great in anything!"

Serena smiled at them gratefully, but that hadn't been the type of answer she'd been looking for. She sighed again, still unable to make a decision, when suddenly Ash stepped forward, albeit somewhat awkwardly. He examined her for a moment without saying anything.

"Ash - ?" Serena began, but was stopped by Ash stepping toward her and removing her hat, causing Serena to blush at their close proximity to one another. He held on to her hat for a moment and examined her again before finally speaking up.

"I think you should go with that." He remarked confidently, shooting her a wide smile as he did so.

He handed her back her hat and stepped away from her, though Serena's blush didn't fade. She nodded after a moment and smiled back at him, stowing her hat in her bag. "…Okay, then. Th-thanks, Ash!"

"No problem." Ash replied, betraying the fact that he probably didn't see what he just did as anything out of the ordinary. "So…now we're heading over to see the Gym, right?"

"And the monorail, too?!" Clemont added in anticipation.

Serena and Bonnie chuckled in unison at the boys' excitement. "Yeah, all right. We can go over to the monorail now."

"All right!" Ash and Clemont exclaimed at once, and both ran off in the direction of the station without a second thought, prompting Serena and Bonnie to follow them, still laughing amongst themselves.

Their excitement persisted the entire way across town, but when they finally arrived at their destination, they both slowed down at once, examining the station with a mix of confusion and concern.

"Hey – what's wrong?!" Serena called out as her and Bonnie caught up to them, not able to clearly make out the monorail rising up above them until they were right next to the pair.

"I thought you were all excited about coming to see this, Clemont!" Bonnie chided.

"I…I was…but look." Clemont explained slowly, raising a finger and pointing to a spot a few dozen yards to the right of the station.

"What happened…?" Ash murmured in shock, as Serena and Bonnie's eyes followed Clemont's finger until they saw what everyone had been looking at: a massive plume of smoke was rising into the air, sprouting from what appeared to be the charred wreckage of a monorail train car scattered across the ground.

* * *

_So hey, seasons really do exist in Pokemon. In my own headcanon anyway. And no, Unova doesn't count xD. This is totally not an attempt to simply make the story more winter-y since it's Christmastime and all. No sir._

_*clears throat* On a sidenote, yeah, Ash and Serena's new looks are pretty much based off of my profile picture there. If you can't see it or if I change it in the future for whatever reason, it's by hikariangelove on deviantart, it's the one of Ash and Serena sitting outside while it's snowing, and Pikachu and Fennekin are there as well. It's one of the first Amour fanarts I found, and I just love it._

_Aaaaanyway, hope you guys enjoyed this relatively uneventful chapter. See you all next time!_


	15. Chapter 15: Winter's Approach, Part II

_Hey everyone, it's been a couple weeks or so, and I apologize for that. I've been really busy getting ready for some stuff I'm doing over the next few months, as well as getting ready for the holidays. Sorry for the wait!_

_Hope you guys enjoy this one!_

* * *

A cool breeze drifted up the cliff side from the ocean and passed over the head of a hooded figure, though the sudden chill didn't appear to bother him in the slightest. The sky was a murky, overcast gray over Anistar City, signaling the onset of the frigid winter weather that was to come.

After being frozen in place, staring at the massive crystalline sundial, for what seemed like an eternity, the hooded man turned suddenly, just as he heard footsteps approaching him from behind. He was met with the sight of an almost identically-clothed figure as himself slowly walking toward him.

"Well?" The second man inquired curtly.

"It's almost time." The first man answered knowingly. "The lunar eclipse will be here within three days. Once that happens…"

The second man nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. "Good. Make sure that everything is in place before then."

"I know." The first man replied. Both of them then turned to face the sundial, looming against the dreary horizon. "Soon…everything is going to change."

* * *

"What happened…?"

Ash and the others remained staring at the wreckage of the monorail car in shock for a few moments before noticing the station a few dozen yards to the left. There was an Officer Jenny posted outside the entrance who appeared to be standing guard.

"Hey…look over there, you guys!" Clemont remarked, pointing over to the station in surprise. "I bet she knows what's going on here."

"Let's go check it out." Ash agreed, prompting the four of them to make a dash for the monorail station entrance.

"Um, excuse me?" Serena called out as they approached the facility, causing Officer Jenny to perk up and look over at them. "We wanted to ride the monorail…can you tell us what happened here?"

Jenny blinked in surprise before answering. "You mean you haven't heard? You must not be from around here."

"Uh, not exactly." Ash affirmed.

Jenny scanned the four of them suspiciously before continuing. "Well, we're not completely sure what happened yet, ourselves. Earlier this morning, somebody or something attacked the train car while it was in motion and brought it the ground, creating that wreck you see over there. We're still in the process of identifying the culprit."

"It was attacked…?!" Clemont gasped in surprise. "But why?"

"Like I said, we're still not sure – "

"I think I might be able to answer that question for you." A distinguished feminine voice interjected suddenly, just as a very elegantly-dressed and very specific-looking woman stepped up beside Clemont, causing the four of them to identify her.

"D-Diantha?!" Ash exclaimed in disbelief at the sight of the Kalos League Champion, whom they had already met once before.

"Pii-kaa?!" Pikachu chirped, just as shocked as its trainer was.

"What are _you _doing here?!" Bonnie asked finally, voicing that question that was on all of their minds.

She turned to face them after a moment, a smile present on her flawless face. "Hi, everyone. I believe there are some things we need to discuss."

* * *

Diantha proceeded to explain to everyone, Officer Jenny included, how she had arrived in Coumarine City the previous day for a photo shoot up on the mountain. However, according to her, the monorail car she'd boarded earlier that morning had been empty save for herself, which had instantly put her on guard, and, as it had turned out, her hunch had been correct: shortly after the car departed from the station, she had been attacked by some kind of Electric attack from an unknown source, which had ended up destroying the entire car and almost killing her, which had no doubt been the attacker's true intention.

"Do you have any idea why someone would want to attack you?" Jenny questioned sternly. "…Besides the obvious, I suppose."

"As a matter of fact, I do." Diantha answered. "Shortly before arriving here, I was approached by a strange man in a hooded robe a few miles outside of town…he challenged me to a battle, insisting that I use my Mega Gardevoir against him. I complied, and we won the battle, but more than once he had tried to use Hypnosis with his Sigilyph…and something seemed off about it each time."

"I don't understand." Jenny admitted. "Do you think that this man is the one that attacked you?"

Diantha nodded grimly. "Yes, and this is the part of the story where Ash and his friends come in." She remarked, gesturing to the four of them, who had been listening intently the entire time.

"Us?" Ash replied flatly.

"What do we have to do with this?" Serena asked.

"Well, you see…I've heard about what happened over at the Shalour City Gym." Diantha uttered knowingly, a glint in her eye as she smiled at them. "I've also heard about what happened to Korrina to start that whole fiasco. She's the only Gym Leader in Kalos to possess the ability of Mega Evolution, right? And I share that ability with her. Are you starting to see the pattern yet?"

"Wait a minute…" Clemont spoke up, thinking back to what Korrina had told them after being defeated at the Tower of Mastery. "Didn't Korrina say something about that guy she ran into? Something about wanting to unlock Mega Evolution for everyone?"

"Yeah…that's right!" Ash exclaimed, beginning to catch on to what Diantha was trying to tell them.

"And she did tell us it felt like she had been controlled by someone…or some_thing_." Serena added darkly.

Diantha nodded. "Personally, I believe that I was targeted for the same reason Korrina was. Only I was able to fight off one of this group's members, and in light of that, that man decided that I had to be eliminated. This seemed to be his attempt at doing that."

"Oh, wow…" Bonnie gaped, taking a moment to process what Diantha was saying. "But if that's true…what about Korrina?"

"Oh, man, that's right!" Ash remarked anxiously. "If what Diantha's saying is true, then someone's gotta be after her, too!"

"Yes, you're probably right." Diantha agreed.

"I think we have a decent lead to go on for the investigation…more than we had before, at least." Jenny announced. "I'm going to take my leave for now and go make my report. If you find out anything else about this, please let me know."

Diantha nodded to her. "Of course." She watched the officer walk off before continuing. "Now, as for the rest of us, here's what I think we should do. I'm going to go and check in with a few people I know…see if we can figure out anything else about what's going on. I'll go ahead and see if I can get in touch with Korrina, as well, and warn her."

"What about us?" Clemont inquired.

Diantha grinned appreciatively at him. "I appreciate your desire to help, but think about it like this for a minute. If those guys are going after Korrina because of what she knows, who else do you think they'll have their eyes on?"

It took a moment for the idea to sink in, but they all got it before too long. "…Us." Ash murmured a few moments later.

"That's right." Diantha nodded. "You guys had better try and lay low for a little while, here in town. I'll let you know when something changes, but until then, try not to do anything to attract attention. I'm surprised they haven't already come after you."

There was a collective moment of silence between the four of them as they considered her words before Ash finally nodded back at her after silently getting affirmation from his friends' looks. "All right. We'll hide out at the Pokémon Center for now."

"Good…I'll be in touch. Goodbye for now."

And with that, the Champion was gone, having disappeared into the foggy city just as quickly as she had appeared, leaving Ash and his friends still slightly apprehensive about the situation that they'd stumbled into.

* * *

True to their word, the four of them ended up heading straight to the Pokémon Center and getting a room for themselves, though that entailed them having to hike up the mountain on foot to get to the upper portion of the city. They weren't alone in that, however, as the mountain pass was somewhat packed with other civilians who appeared to be just as distressed about the monorail's temporary closure as they were.

At first, Ash had wondered if he could still go and challenge the Gym, since they had made it up to the hillcrest section of town anyway, but Clemont quickly shot that idea down, saying that challenging the Gym was the last thing they should be doing if their goal was to stay under the radar, a sentiment with which Ash had to begrudgingly agree.

Instead, the four of them had more or less remained cooped up in the Pokémon Center all day. Clemont resorted to idly working on his inventions, Bonnie stayed near his side and played with Dedenne and Chespin, and Ash tried his best not to go crazy watching the others. Serena, meanwhile, had decided to use this opportunity to bake everyone a special batch of macarons, and as such, she ended up spending most of her day in the kitchen.

Now, night was beginning to fall on the gloomy town. Clemont was getting ready to pack his equipment up and go back to their room with Bonnie in tow, and Ash was nowhere to be found. Serena, on the other hand, had just put the finishing touches on her tray of macarons and slipped them into the oven. She set the timer on her electronic guide and decided to go for a walk around the Pokémon Center to stretch her legs for a bit.

The first few minutes of her stroll went by without a hitch, but then she saw someone standing outside on the patio of one of the external doors that made her double back and look again. It was none other than Ash, standing outside in the bitter cold, on a winter's night, apparently staring up at the moon, with Pikachu as his only companion.

Serena stared at him for a moment and found that she couldn't help but smile. She braced herself for the wind chill and opened the door to step outside, remaining completely silent until she was right up beside him.

"Hey…it's pretty cold out here, you know." Serena remarked softly, doing her best to keep from shivering. "You should come inside. I'm making macarons…"

Ash chuckled at her attempt to entice him with food. "It's okay. I'm already pretty full. I just came out here 'cause I thought it would help me think…I guess."

"Oh." Serena replied simply. A few moments passed before the obvious follow-up came to her mind. "What are you thinking about?"

"Well…I just really hope Korrina's okay, you know?" Ash answered, taking the easy way out for his answer.

"Y-yeah." Serena affirmed, slightly let down that he was bringing up Korrina at a time like this. _"Maybe I shouldn't have come out here…"_

"Those guys Diantha was talking about…and the guy Korrina mentioned, too. They seem like they're pretty serious." Ash explained grimly. "I don't want anything to happen to her, or Gurkinn."

"Yeah…me either." Serena agreed, looking away from him and beginning to make preparations for her exit from the patio. Not that she wasn't concerned about Korrina, of course, but even so, she felt that if she continued talking about her with Ash, it was only going to make her feel worse and worse.

"But, you know something…" Ash continued, and Serena perked up the slightest bit when Ash trailed off nervously. "I've been thinking about you a lot, recently, too."

Serena's mouth almost dropped open, and it seemed like an eternity before she was able to turn her head toward Ash. He was looking back at her with a rather confused look on his face, as if he had no idea what he had just said to her. "Th-thinking about…me…?" She stammered, feeling her face turn red as she spoke.

"Yeah. I don't really know why…" Ash attempted to explain. "Ever since you ran off to save Pikachu on your own…I dunno. Something's different."

"Piika-chuuu." Pikachu chimed, taking the hint to climb down off of Ash's shoulder and instead taking up residence on the railing a few yards down from where they were standing.

"Well…" Serena began, slowly realizing that Ash more than likely had no idea what he was talking about or what was possibly going on between them. He was literally just telling her how he felt and what was going on in his head. "I didn't mean for it to change anything between us. I already told you – you and Pikachu are my friends. I'd do anything for you two."

Ash stared back at her as she attempted to mask her anxiety with a wide smile. "But…Serena…that night out in the field…"

Serena froze, completely taken off guard by the fact that he actually remembered the night that she had almost kissed him. And what's more, he seemed to be aware of what had almost happened, too. "Th-that was…nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure…?"

"Y-yeah. Friends do weird things with each other sometimes, right?" Serena explained hastily, chuckling a little as she spoke. "That's all it was."

Ash continued staring at her for the longest time, while she desperately attempted to keep her composure. She could hardly believe that after coming so close to getting what she thought she had always wanted, here she was now trying to coerce Ash out of pursuing anything romantic with her. There was a small part of her that was utterly disgusted with herself, but the portion of her that was nervous and scared turned out to be much larger than the other.

"…Stop looking at me like that." She finally had to tell him, after who knows how long. She couldn't help but notice that the circumstances were lining up to be a repeat of the night in the field. Here they were, far too close to one another for her liking, standing together under the moon…

"I'm sorry." Ash conceded finally, shooting her a goofy, apologetic smile. "I guess I just couldn't help it."

Serena found herself once again paralyzed as she felt her face heat up. He remained standing there, smiling at her for a moment, before what could be considered either the worst possible thing or the best possible thing that could have happened just then – happened.

BEEP! BEEP!

Serena's timer went off like an alarm clock, causing her, Ash, and Pikachu all to jump as she scampered to retrieve it from her pocket and turn it off. "Aw, man - ! I should've been back by now! They're probably gonna burn!"

She turned and dashed back into the Pokémon Center, followed closely by Ash and Pikachu. By the time they made it back to the kitchen, they could smell the signature stench of something that had been…overcooked, to put it lightly.

"Oh, man…" Serena moaned as she pulled the tray full of what had once been delicious-looking treats out of the oven. "I can't give these to you guys now…"

Ash watched her as she lamented her ruined project. He glanced over at the charred food specimens lined up neatly on the cookie sheet, and suddenly had an idea.

Serena heard Ash walk up beside her and looked up to find him grabbing one of the burned macarons off of the tray and taking a bite out of it. "Ash…? What are you doing? You can't eat those!"

Ash didn't answer her, instead taking the time to chew his food intently before taking another bite. Serena watched in shock as he downed the rest of it a moment later and smiled at her. "I don't know what you're talking about, Serena. They taste great to me!"

Serena opened her mouth to reply, but found that her voice had escaped her for the moment. She merely watched silently as Ash plopped another of the blackened desserts into his mouth happily, seemingly oblivious to the fact that almost all of the taste had been purged from them in the oven. She knew what he was doing, but even so, it didn't make it any easier to believe.

After he finished his third one, he turned to leave the room. "Just wait right there, okay? I'm gonna go find Clemont and Bonnie. They need to try these, too!"

And with that, he was off, leaving Serena standing there with her mouth still hanging open slightly, wondering to herself just what exactly was going through Ash's head.

* * *

_Not the MOST special chapter for Christmas, but eh...I didn't plan to have this one out ON Christmas, but again, my schedule just made it be that way, so...yeah._

_Hope you all enjoyed! And I hope you haven't forgotten about Seth...;)_

_Merry Christmas, guys! See you all next time!_


	16. Chapter 16: Edge of Defeat

_Well, look who went and forgot about their story over the holidays! :3_

_I'm sorry for leaving everyone on the hook with this for...about 5 weeks now. I was really busy over Christmas and the holidays, and then after the new year I kept meaning to get back around to updating this and it just never happened. So...sorry, everyone!_

_Hope you all enjoy this chapter!_

* * *

As it happened, Serena found herself awake before everyone else the following morning, and, given that she still couldn't stop thinking about the events of the previous night, she decided to leave and go for a walk around the Pokémon Center on her own after getting herself dressed, taking care not to wake anyone else so early in the morning.

As she anxiously paced around the building, with no real destination in mind, she became increasingly frustrated by the fact that she was still unable to fully come to terms with the way her and Ash had been acting toward each other lately, and eventually shifted her train of thought over to what Diantha had told them about the previous day at the monorail station.

"_So…Diantha thinks that the same people that went after her and Korrina are going to start coming after us, because of what we did in Shalour City…"_ Serena recapped silently to herself. As she ran over the information in her head again, she suddenly realized something that had seemingly slipped all of their minds since speaking with the Kalos Champion. _"Wait…if they're coming after us because we helped get Korrina back to normal…then what about Seth?!"_

Just as his name came into her head, she rounded the corner at the end of the corridor and brushed past a very familiar-looking someone, though her head was too lost in her own thoughts to notice.

"…Serena?" The boy called out after her a moment later, having stopped and turned toward her. Serena almost jumped when she heard his voice.

"S-Seth?!" She replied in shock, whipping her head around to face him in disbelief. "What are you doing here?!"

"Well, actually…" He began, chuckling nervously at the awkwardness of their sudden encounter. "I was looking for you guys."

"You were looking for us…?"

"Yeah." He nodded in reply. "Where's everyone else? Are you guys staying here?"

"Um…" Serena bit her lip, remembering what Diantha had told her about the necessity of keeping their location hidden from the mysterious assailants. _"I'm sure we can trust Seth, though…right?" _

He seemed to sense that something wasn't quite right when she didn't answer right away. "Hey, is something wrong? I can just talk to you, I guess, if it's a problem or something."

Serena examined his expression for a moment before finally deciding that he was still trustworthy. "It's okay. Everyone else is here, but they're all still asleep, actually…"

Seth laughed. "That's all right. Can I just talk to you, then? It's…kind of important."

Serena sensed the weight that was in his words. "Sure. What's going on?"

Seth motioned for her to be quiet and looked around nervously. "Not in here…someone…might be listening. Come on…follow me."

He slipped his hand into hers and began to lead her to the lobby. Something in the back of her head was sounding off about how she wasn't supposed to be seen outside, but the feeling of safety she got from Seth's hand against hers overrode that thought, and she found it difficult to concentrate on much else at that point.

* * *

It was some time later before Serena finally returned to the Pokémon Center to retrieve her friends and inform them of the situation. She strode toward their room with an unusual single-minded determination and nearly threw the door open once she arrived.

"Ash! You guys!" She pleaded at once. "Wake up!"

"Uuuuh…" Ash moaned groggily, rising up in bed and rubbing his eyes. Clemont and Bonnie awoke, as well, moments later. "Serena…? What's going on?"

"Pii-ka…?" Pikachu muttered inquisitively.

"Well, it's a long story, but the point is that Seth and I managed to find the guys that were after Diantha!"

Ash's eyes shot open at once. "You did what?! Where are they?!"

"Seth's battling some of them in town, but I don't think he can beat them by himself." Serena explained quickly. "I came back here to get you guys! We've got to help him!"

The three of them shared a silent moment of agreement as they glanced at each other before Ash nodded back to Serena. "Right. Let's get going, then!"

They took a minute to change out of their sleepwear and back into their winter gear before heading outside behind Serena. Clemont found, however, that he was unable to shake the thought that something was off about Serena's story.

"Hey, Serena…" Clemont began slowly as they ran outside the confines of the Pokémon Center. "When exactly did you run into Seth again? I'm not forgetting something, am I…?"

Serena hesitated briefly before glancing back over her shoulder at him. "Well…I sort of woke up before the rest of you this morning and went outside for a walk. While I was out, we ended up running into each other and he told me what was going on. I followed him to give him some help, but I don't think he expected there to be so many of them…"

Clemont examined her face, which seemed to be filled with genuine concern, and yet he found that her answer still didn't ease the nagging worry in the back of his head saying that something wasn't right.

After a few minutes of following Serena through numerous twists and turns as she led them deeper in the city, they finally emerged in front of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse nestled against the side of the mountains. Aside from the large central building, there were a handful of smaller enclosures that seemed to be storage buildings lined up along the sides of the facility.

"Come on! They're in there!" Serena declared, pointing to the farthest storage unit from their position and taking off toward it. The group quickly followed after her, but now Ash was beginning to grow suspicious as well, as the area was not only seemingly deserted, but also dead silent.

"Serena? Are you sure this is the right place…?"

"Yes, I'm sure!"

Ash and Clemont shared a worried glance, but neither of them said anything further. When they finally made it to the front of the small building, they were the first to approach the large pair of significantly ajar sliding doors at the front and peer inside. The room was empty.

Clemont blinked once, examining the clearly deserted storage room thoroughly. "Serena…there's nobody here."

"Yeah, I don't see anyone…" Ash added skeptically.

"Serena…what's going on?" Bonnie murmured worriedly, tugging lightly on the older girl's skirt as she spoke. Serena's gaze didn't falter, however, and she brought her hand down to hold Bonnie encouragingly.

"I'm sure this was the right place…maybe there's something inside that we're missing?"

"Come on, Serena. Look around." Clemont remarked, taking a few steps into the room and doing a full sweep before continuing. "There's nothing here. In fact, it doesn't look like anything has been here for a long time."

Ash took a couple of steps into the room as well, if for no other reason than to confirm Clemont's words himself. At that moment, however, Serena's worried expression instantly changed to a wicked grin, and her grip briefly tightened on Bonnie before she shoved her through the doorway roughly.

"Ow!" Bonnie exclaimed as she fell to her knees against the metallic floor. "What was that for?!"

"Okay, Serena, what's going on?" Clemont challenged, her actions somewhat confirming the suspicions he'd been having about her all morning.

When she didn't answer, Ash turned back to regard her with a mix of fear and confusion. "Serena…?"

Just then, Seth walked into view beside her, his Aggron following after him faithfully. "Hey, you guys. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Seth?!" Ash exclaimed in surprise, his eyes darting back and forth between the two of them frantically.

Seth allowed a smile to creep onto his face before he answered. "I knew you guys would come if Serena told you I was in trouble. You're almost too nice for your own good, you know."

"What are you talking about?!" Bonnie demanded.

"Pika pika!" Pikachu growled, jumping down from Ash's shoulder to the ground angrily.

"You mean you don't understand yet?" Serena chuckled. "We already know that there's no way we can convince you to help us. After what happened with Korrina, anyway. So instead, we decided to just lock you up here until the ceremony is finished."

"Korrina…?" Ash echoed softly, something clicking to place in the back of his head.

"That's it, isn't it?" Clemont remarked, having had the same revelation as Ash. "Whoever got to Korrina and made her fight us back then got to you guys, too, didn't they?!"

"I guess you could say that. But all they did was convince us that what they're trying to do is right." Seth answered. "It's too bad you three can't have your minds changed as easily. Or are you trying to tell us that you do want to help?"

"No way!" Bonnie shot back at once. "We'll never help you, ever!"

Ash gritted his teeth. "Come on, you two! Snap out of it! They're just using some kind of mind control on you, remember?!"

Serena and Seth both laughed in unison. "That's what Korrina and Diantha thought, but it's actually a lot different than that in person." Seth explained. "But again, it's clear we don't need to waste time explaining it to you. I think it's about time we got going."

"Yeah, we've still to do something about Diantha, too, remember?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. She wouldn't have fallen for something like this, after all, and we couldn't find her in town anyway."

"Hold on just a minute! You're not going anywhere!" Ash declared defiantly.

"Pika piika!" Pikachu cried in agreement.

"I don't think you'll have much choice in that." Seth replied curtly as he and Serena moved to each grab one of the two opposite sliding doors.

"What do you think - !" Clemont began, attempting to move forward along with Ash and stop them, but before he could take a step, Aggron moved toward them and growled menacingly.

"Come on, guys. We don't want to hurt you." Seth remarked. "Don't give us a reason to."

As difficult as it was for them, Ash, Clemont, Bonnie, and Pikachu were forced to stand and watch as Serena and Seth slammed the two sliding doors together from the outside, closing them inside the storehouse.

"And just in case you got any ideas about coming after us…" Seth's voice echoed from the other side of the wall into the room, and they heard Aggron's footsteps for a few moments before what sounded like something heavy and metallic was dropped just on the other side of the doors. "Aggron just dropped one of those giant empty shipping crates that was lying around in front of the door here. There's no way you can get out, so don't try."

"We'll come back and get you all out in two or three days, when we're all finished." Serena told them. "Trust us, you'll know it when it gets here."

"Two or three days…?!" Bonnie remarked, clearly frightened by the prospect of being stuck in this room for that length of time.

"All right, time for us to get going! You guys behave, now!" Seth called, and then they heard the sound of footsteps leaving the area.

"Hey, wait!" Ash called out frantically, running over and beating on the doors as he called out their names. "Seth! Serena!"

"Ash…" Clemont remarked softly, walking up and putting his hand on Ash's shoulder. "They're not going to let us out."

Ash turned and looked at him angrily for a moment before slamming his fist against the door one last time in defeat. "…What happened to them? What did we miss?"

"It's like they said…I guess." Clemont answered sadly. "If I had to guess, I'd say that Seth encountered one of those guys that Diantha was talking to us about after he left Shalour City, and then the two of them came here looking for us…just like Diantha said. Only they had Seth on their side…which must have taken Serena off guard."

"Serena…" Ash murmured, imagining what it must have been like for her to have been placed under the hooded figures' control. "We've got to help them, you guys!"

Clemont nodded. "Yeah, but, we've got to find a way to get out of here first…there's no way we can get that door open from here, and even if we could, none of us, or even our Pokémon, can move that barricade out of the way."

"There's got to be a way!"

"Don't worry…we'll find a way out. Just give me some time to think." Clemont assured him, his face turning to a grin for the first time that morning. "It'll be all right."

"You should listen to him, Ash." Bonnie added cheerfully. "If there's any way out of here at all, in the whole world, my big brother'll find it!"

Ash smiled at her, grateful both for her incessant cheerfulness as well as her unrelenting faith in her older brother. "Thanks, you guys. You're right! We'll find a way out of here, _and_ help Serena and Seth get back to normal!"

"Pika pika!" Pikachu chimed energetically, as Clemont and Bonnie nodded in agreement.

"Right! Then let's get to it." Clemont declared, allowing his mind to sink into analysis mode while simultaneously reminding himself of a few things that he had to force himself not to forget.

"_Remember, Clemont. There's a lot more on the line this time than usual. Your friends are counting on you…and maybe a whole lot of other people, too. You can do it. You have to do it."_

* * *

As Seth and Serena made their way back to the Pokémon Center to begin searching for Diantha, Seth having recalled Aggron shortly after departing the abandoned warehouse, Serena couldn't help but continue to feel a slight voice nagging at the back of her thoughts telling her that what she was doing was wrong. Despite this, working together with Seth and having her thoughts influenced caused her to not pay the voice any heed, though it remained there all the same.

Unsure of where else to start besides the obvious, they did indeed decide to start by asking around at the Pokémon Center to see if anyone had spotted Diantha around town. As it turned out, however, seeking her out themselves would prove itself to be unnecessary.

"D-Diantha!" Serena gasped in surprise, genuinely shocked to just see her pass by the street in front of them outside the entrance to the Pokémon Center. The Champion turned when she heard Serena's voice and smiled at her for a brief moment before noticing the stranger standing next to her.

"Serena, who is that?" Diantha demanded cautiously. "And better yet, what are you doing outside?"

Serena opened her mouth to reply, but decided against it after a quick glance from Seth, who stepped forward to answer himself. "Hi there. I'm Seth. Nice to meet you…Champion."

Diantha instantly noticed that something wasn't right and took a step back. "What's going on here? Serena, what happened?"

"Well…I met the guy you were talking to us about. Let's just leave it at that." Serena answered coyly.

"You know what we want." Seth stated firmly. "Just come with us so we don't have to make this all complicated."

Diantha glared angrily at the two of them. "I can't believe this. They found you…where are Ash and the others?!"

Serena giggled. "Don't worry, they're fine."

"They won't be getting in the way anytime soon, though." Seth added. "Come on, what's it gonna be?"

Diantha gritted her teeth. "I would never stoop so low as to help the likes of you. Serena, you are my friend, and I promise I will free you from this!"

"I don't think so." Seth replied defiantly. "I guess we're gonna have to fight you, after all. I can't say I haven't been hoping I'd get a chance like this one day, though."

"Be careful what you wish for." Diantha taunted confidently. "You might not be so pleased once you get it. Gardevoir, I choose you!"

"Gar-de-voir!" Gardevoir cried, emerging from its Poke Ball in a flash of light before her.

Seth nodded to Serena and the two of them took a few liberal steps back before Seth spoke up again. "All right, Aggron, let's go!"

"Rrrrooon!" Aggron roared as it materialized from its brief slumber in its Ball.

Diantha stared down the three opponents standing across from her as her mind ran a mile a minute trying to process what had happened in the last couple of minutes. _"I have to help Serena and her friends…I can't let them get wrapped up in this. This isn't their fight. I have to help them…but…" _She suddenly shook her head in frustration before looking up with renewed vigor in her eyes. "_Now isn't the time for this…now is the time to show everyone my resolve. It is my duty as Champion to see this through."_

With those thoughts giving her strength, she locked eyes with Seth, rose her arm, and called out her first attack.

"Gardevoir, let's begin! Use Shadow Ball!"

* * *

_Well, that took a turn._

_I hope you all enjoyed after over a month of waiting. I promise the next update won't be so far out ;)_

_'Till then, have a good one guys!_


	17. Chapter 17: Clash! Coumarine City!

_Hey guys. Getting close to the end here! Hopefully I can put out the last few chapters on a more regular basis to wrap this up in a timely fashion. Hope everyone is still enjoying it!_

* * *

For most of the afternoon, Clemont had forced himself to try and devise a way out of their makeshift prison despite their limited resources. Bonnie had also been attempting to help him, but this inevitably did more harm than good despite the girl's best intentions, and the two siblings ended up spending half of their time arguing instead of brainstorming.

Meanwhile, Ash had taken to leaning against the far wall opposite from where Clemont and Bonnie were working and staring at the ceiling absentmindedly, with Pikachu sitting at his feet pretending to know what was going through his head.

"What do you think, buddy?" Ash asked out of the blue, breaking the perpetual silence as he questioned his partner distantly. "You see any way out of here?"

Pikachu blinked, taken aback by the sudden and almost random question after such a long period of silence. "Pii-ka…" It squeaked negatively after a moment, shaking its head in reply.

"We've got to get her back." Ash remarked defiantly after a moment of silence. "Whatever they did to her…we've gotta make her come back."

"Pika?" Pikachu chirped confusedly.

Ash looked down at his partner with a puzzled look on his face before smiling weakly. "Oh…yeah, and Seth, too. And we've still to figure out who those guys are in the first place…"

"Pii-ka, pika. Pii-ka-chuuu." Pikachu chimed knowingly.

"…I guess she_ is_ pretty important to me…isn't she?" Ash murmured softly, as if he were realizing it for the very first time.

"Pi-kaa pii!" Pikachu agreed happily.

"But…I don't know what that means, or what I'm supposed to do." Ash admitted helplessly, fighting the sudden urge to bury his head in his hands. "I…I just don't know. This is a lot more complicated than I thought it'd be…"

"Oh, brother!" Bonnie interjected, causing Ash's eyes to shoot up, only to find her and Clemont standing there, as if they'd been listening from across the room the entire time. "I hate to tell you this, but you're almost as hopeless as Clemont is!"

"Hey!" Clemont retorted angrily, but Bonnie paid him no mind.

"Come on, Ash. You really think that Serena doesn't like you, too?"

"B-Bonnie!" Clemont protested, remembering the conversation that they'd had with Serena back in Shalour City. "We're not supposed to – "

"Yeah, well, I don't care!" Bonnie cried, cutting her older brother off. "All I told her was that she needed to talk to Ash before something happened. Well, guess what, Clemont! Look around us! Something happened!"

Clemont stood there for a moment in stunned silence, staring at his younger sister with a mix of pride and fear. "…Yeah, I guess you're right." He sighed finally.

"Uh…" Ash spoke up. "What are you guys talking about?"

The two siblings briefly glanced at each other and nodded before turning to face Ash again. "Listen, Ash – "

"Serena likes you, you big dummy!" Bonnie blurted out, cutting her brother off for the second time.

"Bonnie!" Clemont moaned yet again, whilst Bonnie merely stood their smirking, appearing proud of herself.

"Pika?!"

"She…what?" Ash stammered, the impact of her words not quite hitting home for a moment.

"I said, she likes you!" Bonnie repeated encouragingly. "She really, really likes you!"

Ash blinked as the true meaning of her words slowly began to dawn on him. "But…that…"

"It's true." Clemont admitted, nodding with an apologetic look on his face, as if he were attempting to make amends for Bonnie's bluntness. "And she has for quite a while. You mean you honestly never noticed?"

Ash racked his brain, trying to recall an instance when he had perceived Serena as acting unusually affectionate toward him. But, perhaps due to his own lack of experience in the matter, he found that he couldn't produce a single example. "…No."

Clemont and Bonnie shared an almost embarrassed look, and they both had to restrain themselves from laughing. "Wow, Ash. You really are hopeless." Bonnie remarked humorously.

"Serena…likes me…" Ash repeated to himself, imagining her in his head and trying to convince himself of the words he was saying. "I…don't know what to say."

"Yeah, you said that already." Clemont replied cheerfully. "Listen, Ash, the only thing you're supposed to say right now is if you feel the same way about her or not. Everything else…well…" Clemont paused and blushed, again mentally noting his own inexperience in this matter. "…it's just like being friends with someone, I guess. You just do what comes naturally."

"Do what comes naturally…" Ash echoed distantly.

"But Ash, you do like her, right? You just said she was important to you!"

Ash met the young girl's blazing eyes for a moment before shifting his gaze to Clemont, and finally to Pikachu, unsure of how he should reply. He was used to things being relatively simple when it came to feelings and emotions. Making friends, raising and battling Pokémon…none of that even came close to what he was feeling now.

"Pi-ka-chuu." Pikachu cooed encouragingly, verbally nudging its partner forward.

Ash took a moment and tried to imagine Serena, wherever she was right now. He thought of her being tricked by Seth into joining the Mega Evolution fanatics, and what might happen to her if they were never able to get her back. He imagined himself going through the Kalos region with only Clemont and Bonnie as his companions, a reality that was now a very real possibility.

He clenched his fists angrily and looked up at the two siblings again, a renewed sense of determination in his eyes. "Yeah. I guess I do."

"Yaaay!" Bonnie cheered at last, glad that he had admitted his feelings at last. "I knew it! I knew it, Clemont!"

Clemont grinned and nodded at him approvingly. "Yeah. So, are you ready to get out of here and go rescue her?"

"What? You mean you found a way out?!"

"Of course." Clemont answered arrogantly, adjusting his glasses for a brief second before continuing. "It takes more than a simple three-dimensional box to hold this Gym Leader prisoner! Go, Bunnelby, I choose you!"

As he spoke, Clemont produced Bunnelby's Poke Ball and released the small rabbit-like Pokémon.

"Beeee!" Bunnelby squawked as it emerged in a flash of light.

"Now, observe, if you please!" Clemont announced dramatically. "Bunnelby, use Dig and create an escape tunnel for us!"

"Bunnel-beee!" Bunnelby cried, leaping into the air and turning into a spinning corkscrew dive toward the ground, ears first.

"…_This_ was your big plan?" Bonnie remarked, seemingly unimpressed as Bunnelby quickly began tunneling through the dirt floor beneath them.

"Well…yes." Clemont admitted, deflating a bit at Bonnie's tone. "A-as I always say, sometimes simplicity is the best tool of all!"

"You've never said that."

Ash couldn't help but laugh at their playful bickering back and forth, and, despite their circumstances, he couldn't help but feel a little bit optimistic again. _"Hang on, Serena…we're on our way."_

* * *

Meanwhile, in the city, Gardevoir and Aggron had ended up coming to more or less of a stalemate so far, with Gardevoir having a slight advantage, though the two of them had really just been trading blows for the most part.

"I guess I can see why you're called the Champion, now." Seth remarked nonchalantly, as Aggron and Gardevoir both took a brief moment to catch their breath. "Can we stop messing around and get serious, then?"

"That's really what you're after, isn't it…? But you're not really leaving me much of a choice, either." Diantha grunted angrily, hesitantly reaching to the Key Stone hanging off of her necklace.

Seth grinned as he, too, reached down to the Key Stone embedded in his bracelet. "Now you're catching on."

"Gardevoir, Mega Evolve!"

"Aggron, Mega Evolve!"

The two Pokémon were simultaneously engulfed in the rainbow-colored glow of Mega Evolution before emerging in their ultimate forms, causing Diantha to grit her teeth nervously. _"Two Mega Evolved Pokémon doing battle with each other…such a thing certainly doesn't happen every day, and with good reason. If this goes on like this, who knows what will become of the city…"_

"Go, Aggron! Use Head Smash!"

"Gardevoir, Shadow Ball!"

Aggron roared and charged forward, just in time for Gardevoir to produce and fire another purplish-black ball of energy, which slammed into the now-pure Steel-type head-on, stopping its attack for the moment.

"Now, Gardevoir, while he's stunned! Use Psychic!"

"Aggron, close the distance! Get up close to Gardevoir!"

Gardevoir raised its arms and its eyes shone a brilliant blue as it began broadcasting its mind toward Aggron, who had just enough time to take one step forward before it began to feel the effects of the attack. It nearly froze in place as it began struggling to break free of Gardevoir's mental assault.

"Come on, Aggron! Just a little closer!"

Aggron grunted angrily and slowly dragged itself a few inches forward against the force of the Psychic attack, much to Diantha's surprise.

"_How is it able to resist Gardevoir's attack like that…?"_

After one last step forward against the pull of its own body, Aggron finally arrived within striking distance of its opponent.

"Now, Aggron! Use Superpower!"

Aggron narrowed its eyes and clenched its fist just as a white aura enveloped its entire arm. Its body suddenly broke free of the Psychic attack entirely, and it reared back to slam its fist into Gardevoir.

"Gardevoir - !"

However, just before the punch connected, a massive net of emerald-green vines suddenly burst forth from the ground beneath Aggron, quickly wrapping themselves around its entire armored body and almost squeezing it tight, preventing it from moving.

"Rrroonn - ?!" Aggron cried in shock, the momentum from its attack carrying it forward and sending it slamming face-first into the concrete.

"Now hold on there just a minute, yeh whippersnappers." A gentle, tender voice croaked with a surprising air of authority. "What d'you think yeh're doing, making all this trouble in my town?"

"Who's there?" Seth demanded angrily, and he and Serena turned to find an elderly man, propping himself up with a cane that appeared to actually be a giant pair of hedge clippers, standing behind a rather large Pokémon that Serena didn't recognize.

"What _is_ that?" Serena questioned, not able to contain her curiosity despite her hypnotism. She quickly produced her Pokedex and pointed it at the creature.

"_Gogoat, the Mount Pokémon. The evolved form of Skiddo. Its placid disposition allows people to ride on it. It can tell how its Trainer is feeling by subtle shifts in the grip on its horns, which lets them run as if one being."_

"Ramos!" Diantha called out gratefully, recognizing the face of the Coumarine City Gym Leader at once.

"Hello there, Diantha. It has been a while, hasn't it?" Ramos responded happily. "And I remember you, as well, young man."

Seth frowned, not sure of how to respond to the kindly Gym Leader. "…You shouldn't have gotten involved."

Ramos laughed heartily. "Oh, is that so? Well, I don't know what it is yeh're after, but yeh won't be causing any more of a ruckus in this town!"

"Really?" Seth challenged. "Your Gogoat's Grass Knot might have caught us off guard this time…but I don't think that's going to happen again."

"Oh! Well, then, we'll just have to see about that."

"Seth, wait…" Serena murmured as Aggron slowly climbed backed to its feet, both Gardevoir and Gogoat staring it down relentlessly. "You can't fight both of them by yourself. I'll handle the Gym Leader."

"Are you sure?"

Serena nodded back to him as she produced Braixen's Poke Ball. "Braixen, I choose you!"

"Braiiiixen!" Her partner cried, emerging from the capsule in a flash of light.

"Do you think we're just going to let you do that?!" Diantha remarked at once, keenly aware of the type advantages that were now in play. "Gardevoir, use Moonblast on Braixen!"

Ramos grinned, catching on to Diantha's plan. "Now then, Gogoat! Use Leech Seed on Aggron!"

Serena gritted her teeth in frustration, as she had hoped to take Gogoat out of the fight quickly. "Quick, Braixen, use Flamethrower!"

"Aggron, dodge!"

Braixen flourished its wand in a flash and cancelled out the Moonblast with a hasty spray of fire, but Aggron was simply too slow to avoid Gogoat's attack, and it crumpled to the ground as the seeds latched themselves onto its armor-like skin and began to sprout their signature life-draining roots, preventing him from moving.

"Now, use Grass Knot, once more!" Ramos called.

"Goooo!" Gogoat huffed, stomping its hooves on the ground as another series of vines burst forth from the ground and wrapped themselves around Aggron, constricting his body even further.

Seth grunted angrily as he watched his Pokémon weight and physical strength being used against it. Serena, however, took this as her cue to attempt to eliminate Gogoat, as she had originally intended. "Braixen, use Flamethrower on Gogoat!"

Braixen complied and launched another stream of fire toward the Mount Pokémon, but before it connected, Gardevoir stepped in the flames' path.

"Now, Gardevoir, use Psychic to block the attack!"

"Gaaarde-voir!" Gardevoir chimed, its eyes glowing blue once more as the Flamethrower broke into half a dozen smaller streams and fanned out around the Mega Evolved Psychic-type, each of them trailing off harmlessly into the air.

"You will not get past us!" Diantha declared angrily.

"This isn't getting us anywhere…we shouldn't have gotten Ramos' attention." Seth murmured disparagingly before looking down at his Pokémon, watching as its energy was slowing sucked away.

"Well, do you have any suggestions, then?" Serena grumbled back.

"I think we all know how this is gonna end, now." Ramos remarked cheerily, looking over at Diantha. "What do you say we finish it together?"

Diantha smiled back at him. "That sounds wonderful."

"All righty then. Gogoat, use Razor Leaf on Braixen!"

"Gardevoir, you use Shadow Ball!"

"Braixen - !" Serena cried as both Pokémon obeyed and fired their attacks. Just before they could make contact, however, an odd-looking bird Pokémon suddenly drifted into view, hovering between Braixen and its attackers.

"Sigilyph, Protect!"

Almost at once, a bluish forcefield went up around Sigilyph, causing both of the attacks to bounce off harmlessly.

"What are you two doing? I thought I told you not to make a commotion!" A familiar-looking hooded figure barked, stepping onto the scene and approaching Seth and Serena.

"You…!" Diantha uttered in shock. "You're the one I battled before!"

"Yeah, so what? I'm surprised you actually remembered me, Champion." The hooded man shot back.

"…Sorry…" Seth murmured sheepishly. "The Champion put up more of a fight than we expected…"

"Of course she did, who do you think she is? But it doesn't matter anymore." The man explained, his Sigilyph still hovering between Braixen and the other Pokémon, acting as a temporary deterrent to any further attacks. "We've had a change of plans. Come on – we've got a transport lined up to take us to Anistar City."

"Anistar City? Now? But I thought – " Serena began, only to be cut off by the hooded man.

"I know what you thought, that's why I just told you there was a change of plan!" He replied impatiently. "Now come with me!"

Serena and Seth shared a hesitant glance before nodding to each other. "Aggron, return!"

"You too, Braixen!"

"Hey, where do you think you three are going?" Diantha demanded.

"Sorry, but we don't have any more time to deal with you." The hooded man answered. "Of course, if you still want to try and stop us, you're free to follow us to Anistar City." It was hard to tell, but she almost thought she could see him grinning wickedly under the shadow of his hood. "I'm sure our boss would love to meet you."

Diantha's eyes widened. "What do you - !"

"Sigilyph, use Dazzling Gleam!"

In an instant, Sigilyph raised its wings and emitted a painfully blinding light from its entire body, causing Ramos and Diantha, as well as their Pokémon, all to look away hastily. When they opened their eyes, the hooded man, as well Serena, Seth, and his Sigilyph, had all vanished.

Diantha stood there for a moment, stunned, as Ramos made his way over to her sympathetically. "They got away…I let them get away."

"It's all right, Diantha. Weh did everything weh could."

She continued staring off into the distance despondently, almost hoping to catch a glimpse of them fleeing somewhere further in the city, until a few moments later when she did indeed hear footsteps running toward them.

"Hey! Diantha!" Ash's voice called out. She turned to find him, Clemont, Bonnie, and Pikachu all racing toward her, a desperate hope in their eyes.

"Ash…"

"Hey, what happened? Are you okay? Where's Seth and Serena?!" Ash rattled off at once as soon as they had caught up to her, not even taking a second to catch his breath.

"Slow down, Ash – " Clemont urged.

"I'm not gonna slow down until I know what happened to them!" Ash insisted.

Diantha blinked, taking a moment to take stock of the situation before responding. "…I see, they must have done something to you three before going after me. I'm sorry, but…I let them get away."

* * *

_Ah, Sigilyph. Such an interesting design, only to be neutered by the old single-stage evolution curse. _

_At any rate, I hope you all enjoyed. See you guys next time!_


	18. Chapter 18: Eclipsing Future

_Hey guys! It's been about a month since the last update, I know, and I apologize for that. I've had quite a few things going on lately. This chapter is also somewhat shorter than usual for this story, but that's because I really had a hard time getting back into writing this, and I'm not sure I could have pushed out a single chapter any longer than this one at this point in time. _

_The next one should be a return to form, though, and I can guarantee you guys that it won't take me another month to get it written. Thanks, and enjoy!_

* * *

Seth and Serena ended up being taken to Anistar City by air, with the trip taking a few hours and consuming the remainder of the afternoon. By the time they arrived, the sun was beginning to set, painting the sky with an amber orange glow.

"This way." The hooded man remarked gruffly as they landed, leading them away from the helipad and into the trees surrounding the facility.

After shuffling through the foliage for a few minutes, they came upon a clearing that led into a steep dropoff, overlooking a coastal plaza containing an enormous crystalline artifact of some sort. Also waiting for them on the cliff was another of the hooded figures, who turned to greet them as they arrived.

"Good, you've arrived. The Champion has been dealt with, I take it?"

"…Unfortunately not. She proved to be too powerful for us to defeat…and she eluded our attempts to eliminate her otherwise."

The man was silent for a moment before replying. "…I see. Well…no matter. Your presence was requested here ahead of schedule because the ceremony itself is now ahead of schedule. The eclipse will be happening tomorrow, and we need to be prepared when it arrives."

"Tomorrow…? B-but…we have nobody to perform the ceremony with…"

"Ah…but we do." The man replied reassuringly, turning his gaze to Serena and Seth. "Not our first choice, of course, but they will do nonetheless."

The two of them merely stood there and nodded, their hypnotic mind control preventing them from voicing any kind of opposition to the situation they now found themselves in.

"Just wait, Kalos…" The man trailed off, turning and gazing at the crystalline sundial almost lovingly. "After tomorrow, a new era will begin…"

* * *

"Anistar City…?"

"Are you serious?!"

"But that's all the way on the other side of the region!"

"Yeah…I know." Diantha answered begrudgingly. After she had explained to them what had happened in their absence, she mentioned that she'd heard them say they were heading to Anistar City, which just so happened to be on the complete other side of Kalos from where they were now. "I still don't know what it is they're up to, exactly, but if they're gathering in Anistar City, they probably plan to make use of the sundial in some way."

"Uh…the sundial…?" Ash remarked blankly.

"It's a massive piece of crystal that they keep on display in Anistar City." Clemont explained. "Supposedly, it makes Mega Stones resonate if you bring one near it…"

"Oh, there's no 'supposedly' about it." Diantha replied knowingly. "It definitely has some sort of connection with Mega Stones and Key Stones. That must be why this Mega Evolution cult of ours is gathering there."

"Well, that's easy, then! We've just gotta go there and stop them from doing…whatever it is they're doing!" Bonnie remarked confidently.

"Yeah, but…" Ash began slowly, folding his arms across his chest. "We still don't have a way to get there…"

"I think I might beh able to help yeh out with that one, sprouts." Ramos said, speaking up all of a sudden with a grin on his face.

"Ramos?" Diantha questioned skeptically.

"It just so happens that I am acquainted with someone in town that should be able to fly you right on over to the east side of Kalos."

"Really?!" Ash exclaimed excitedly.

"That'd be great!" Clemont added.

"Yes, well, remember, it may take a little while for him to get fully prepared for the trip…I'll go and find him for you, but don't expect to be leaving until tomorrow morning, at the earliest."

"Tomorrow morning…?" Ash repeated slowly, his face falling slightly.

"That'll be perfect. Thank you, Ramos." Diantha said, edging her way into the conversation.

"Oh, yeh don't need to thank meh, Diantha." Ramos answered back heartily. "Just make sure yeh stop those men. Whatever it is they plan to do, I got a feeling it isn't natural."

Diantha nodded respectfully to him just as he turned and hobbled off, disappearing back into the city streets.

"…Right. Well, I don't think I need to tell you three to be ready for whatever happens tomorrow." Diantha chided, smiling at the trio of companions.

"Yeah. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine." Clemont assured her.

"Good. I'll come and find you tomorrow…until then, try and get some rest."

And with that, she was gone as well, just as quickly as the Gym Leader before her, leaving Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie standing alone in front of the Pokémon Center.

"Come on, Ash…don't worry." Bonnie remarked, attempting to cheer him up. "We'll get Serena back! You'll see!"

"Bonnie's right." Clemont agreed. "I know you must feel bad, but thinking about it now isn't going to help anyone."

"…Yeah. I guess you're right." Ash replied sadly, looking over at them with a false sense of optimism. "Come on…let's go inside."

* * *

The three of them heartily attempted to occupy themselves with their usual hobbies for the remainder of the day, but soon found the task of keeping their minds off of their captured friends too difficult for them, and ended up wandering around the Pokémon Center somewhat aimlessly instead.

That night, Ash found it almost impossible to sleep, his mind ablaze with thoughts of Serena and her condition. Even when he did fall asleep at last, he was plagued by numerous bad dreams of her, each involving him reaching out his hand for her as she dissolved, vanished, or ran away from him.

Meanwhile, across the region, Serena found herself having similar problems, even through the effects of the Hypnosis, which, admittedly, were rapidly diminishing as more time went by.

To avoid attracting suspicion, Seth and Serena had been directed to stay in the Pokémon Center for the night, away from the other hooded men. Seth appeared to have had no trouble going to sleep, but Serena was not so fortunate, continually being reminded of Ash even as the mind control actively attempted to push such thoughts out of her mind.

After some time, she found herself climbing out of bed in frustration and going across the room, gazing up at the winter sky helplessly as tiny flakes of snow fell nonchalantly from the dark curtain above. The more she doted on the matter, the more she seemed to get her own mind back. She gasped out loud suddenly, remembering what she had done to Ash and the others back in Coumarine City. Even so, she found that she still couldn't entirely shake the prodding voice at the edge of her mind that she now recognized as the effects of the Hypnosis attack.

"So…you, too, huh?" Seth murmured, breaking the silence and causing Serena to almost jump in surprise, though she remained facing the window, away from him. He put a hand to his temple angrily. "Ever since we checked in here, I've been feeling it, too…their Hypnosis must be wearing off. They're probably planning to hit us with another blast of it tomorrow morning." He sighed wearily. "It _almost_ feels like I'm myself again…but just when you think the voice is gone…" He gritted his teeth and looked over at her. "It's the same for you, isn't it?"

She remained silent for a moment before answering with a question of her own, struggling to hold back what she now realized were tears that had been forming in her eyes. "W-what are we supposed to do…?"

"Yeah…if we try to run, they'll follow us. As long as their Hypnosis is on us, we can't get too far without them knowing, and they'll know exactly where we went, at that…and to make matters worse, every time I try to think of something else, I…rrgh!" Seth grunted angrily, clenching his fists as another of his stray thoughts was snatched away by the doting presence at the edge of his mind.

"…D-do you remember what we did…?" Serena asked quietly, causing Seth to shoot her back a slightly confused look. "We attacked Ash..._I_…attacked Ash…and Clemont, and Bonnie…and now, who knows what's happening to them…because of me…!"

"Serena…" Seth began slowly, planning to tell her that what happened wasn't her fault, but he was cut off by her suddenly turning around and throwing herself onto his shoulder with tears streaming down her face.

"Seth…! I…I'm scared…! What's going to happen to all of us…?"

Seth looked down at her in shock, unsure of how to react at first. After a moment, however, he shifted his body so that she was leaning on his chest instead of his shoulder, and put an arm around her head.

"Listen, Serena…you know Ash better than I do. That should tell you right there that everything's going to be all right. That stupid room we locked him and the others in? Do you really think that's going to hold those guys for very long?"

She sniffed and looked up at him, unsure of what to say back. "Wh-what are you…?"

It was difficult, given the circumstances, but he managed to flash her a confident smile. "I'll tell you what would happen if this were backwards. I'd have broken out of that warehouse in less than an hour and would be finding a way to get across Kalos to come after you as soon as possible. And…Ash is twice the friend that I am. If this whole thing is anyone's fault, after all…it's mine." His gaze fell slightly as he uttered those last few words.

"Seth - !"

"Don't try to tell me it isn't." He insisted stubbornly, his face brightening again as he looked her dead in the eyes. "The point is, you don't need to worry, because I can guarantee you that Ash is either on his way over here right now, or he will be by tomorrow. Remember what happened in Shalour City, when you ran off to the Gym all by yourself?"

Serena blinked, taking a minute to process what he was telling her.

"I…don't know what's going to happen to us tomorrow. But…I know we're going to be okay. These guys made a big mistake when they decided to take you as one of their slaves, and I think they're going to find that out tomorrow."

Serena looked up at him and, despite the lingering effects of Hypnosis, managed to smile back at him gratefully. "…Thanks, Seth. It seems like you always know what to say to me."

Seth couldn't help but blush slightly at her words. "S-stop it…that's not fair. What am I supposed to say to that?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Serena admitted, giggling softly. "Really, though. Thank you."

"Don't worry about it." He replied, casually edging away from her so her head was no longer resting on his chest. "Let's just focus on trying not to do anything exceedingly crazy tomorrow when we're under that Hypnosis control again."

* * *

_Like I said, kind of shorter than usual, and possibly not as good...but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, and it was probably either go with this to pad out this moment in the story or abandon the story altogether, which I most certainly did not want to do. So, here you go everyone! Thanks for sticking with me through the wait!_


	19. Chapter 19: Transcendent Bonds

_Hey guys. Got the final update for you here today. I wanted to apologize for taking so long to get these last four or five chapters written...a 19-chapter story should NOT have taken me 7-8 months to complete. I think the large gaps I started having to take recently ended up affecting the pacing and quality of the story, as well, so I wanted to apologize for that and thank those of you that have stuck with it this whole time. You guys are awesome!_

_With that being said, here is the update you have all been waiting for, so I hope you guys enjoy it!_

* * *

Despite Ash's troubled slumber, the next morning finally arrived all the same, carrying with it a looming sense of urgency in the young trainer's mind. Despite himself, Clemont, and Bonnie all sharing the room, their early morning preparations ended up being relatively devoid of conversation, as the events that were to come later that day weighed heavily on all of their minds.

Diantha and Ramos were waiting for them outside when they left the Pokémon Center. Ramos then guided them through the city to what appeared to be a small private airport, which he explained as being run by a friend of his. To their surprise, the Gym Leader had arranged for them to be flown across Kalos in a private jet, piloted by the same man that ran the airport.

After some hasty goodbyes and a genuine thank-you to Ramos, the group filed into the small passenger compartment of the airliner and, just like that, they were off.

During the flight, not much was discussed until Clemont inquired as to whether anyone actually had a plan about what they were going to do once they reached their destination.

"Well, like I mentioned yesterday, the first thing to do would be to head for the sundial. It's near the center of town; it won't be hard to find."

"But…what about after that?"

"That's easy." Ash interrupted, a stern, defiant look on his face. "We find Serena and Seth, and we stop whatever those guys are planning to do today."

"…I don't know about you, Ash, but that doesn't exactly sound 'easy' to me." Clemont remarked.

"Don't worry." Diantha assured him. "There's a reason I'm coming along with you, you know. I wasn't named the Champion of Kalos based on my popularity, after all."

Clemont had no choice but to have faith in her words, and, following this exchange, not much in the way of conversation occurred for the remainder of the trip.

The reason for going to the trouble of using a personal jet instead of something easily accessible quickly became apparent to Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie, as scarcely two hours had passed before the pilot's voice crackled over the intercom, announcing that they were approaching Anistar City.

"Wow, that was really fast." Clemont commented, clearly impressed by the vessel's speed.

"Wait a second…aren't we forgetting something?!" Bonnie cried all of a sudden. "How are we gonna get down there? We can't just land, can we?"

Diantha grinned at her words and stood up, motioning for everyone to gather up around her. "Oh, don't worry about that. I've already taken care of it."

"Um…" Ash muttered awkwardly as the three of them plus Pikachu clustered up around her. "Okay, but…what exactly are we doing?"

"Hold on." Diantha explained, winking at him. "You'll see."

A few moments of silence passed before the voice came back over the intercom again. "Okay, Diantha. You guys are good to go. Good luck down there!"

"Thank you!" Diantha replied before looking down to Ash and the others. "All right then, are you ready? Gardevoir, come on out!"

None of them actually answered her question, instead taking the time to stare at Gardevoir in confused anticipation as their minds slowly put the pieces together. Clemont seemed to realize it first.

"Wait, don't tell me - !"

"Gardevoir, use Teleport! Take us down to the city!"

"Gaaarde-vooir!"

And just like that, they shimmered out of existence in the plane and reappeared a second later down on the ground, apparently now in the middle of Anistar City.

"Whoa…did we just…?!" Ash stammered, glancing around wide-eyed at the city as if to make sure it was real.

"Wow! That was so cool!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"Y-yeah…it was 'cool', all right…" Clemont remarked slowly, clearly shaken by the experience of blinking in and out of the physical realm, even if only for a brief time.

Diantha chuckled at their reactions. "I'm glad to see you all enjoyed the trip. Now, I believe it's time we make for the sundial, don't you?"

Ash looked over at her and nodded seriously, seemingly losing all of his wide-eyed wonder in merely a moment. "Yeah, you're right. Let's get moving."

"Pika pika!" Pikachu agreed.

With Diantha leading them through the streets, it didn't take them long to reach the large, open plaza that housed the sundial. However, the very second that they laid eyes upon it, they could tell that something was very wrong.

A group of half a dozen of the cloaked, hooded men that they had previously encountered had congregated around the base of the crystal, their presence having seemingly driven away all of the other passerbys for the time being. Seth was with them, as well, and along with a few large, empty, metal crates littering the surrounding area was a large device that appeared to be hooked up to the sundial itself through a series of wires and cables. And, standing in dead center of the device itself, was Serena.

"That's them, all right." Diantha confirmed as they approached the group of hooded men.

"Serena!" Ash cried out upon seeing her strapped into the device. The four of them stopped a few yards away from where the hooded men were standing.

"Ash…?" Serena murmured softly, leaving him to wonder if she was still under the effects of the Hypnosis or not.

"See? I told you they'd come, didn't I?" Seth announced proudly, stepping in front of Serena and crossing his arms with a defiant look in his eyes.

"Indeed you did. I knew you would turn out to be a valuable ally for us." One of the men replied.

"Come on, Seth! Don't you remember who we are?!" Clemont demanded.

"We're your friends, remember? You don't have to fight us!" Bonnie insisted.

"That's what you think." Seth replied, grinning at them darkly.

"Serena, come on! I know you can hear me!" Ash roared angrily.

"I…I have to do this. It's going to make everything better, don't you see…?" Serena argued, though it was clear from her tone that she wasn't so sure of herself.

"This is bad." Clemont murmured to Ash and the others. "That device she's strapped in to…it has to be the one that Korrina told us about. The one that induces Mega Evolution without a Mega Stone…"

"Yes, that seems to be the case." Diantha agreed. "But that doesn't explain why Serena is in it, or why it's apparently plugged into the sundial…"

"It doesn't matter!" Ash declared, raising his voice so that the hooded men could hear as well. "If Serena won't listen to us, then we're just gonna have to come over there and take her back ourselves!"

"Pii-kaachuuu!" Pikachu growled, glaring at the hooded men as sparks began flaring out of its cheeks.

"Oh, you think so, do you?" Another of the men replied arrogantly, five of them plus Seth moving forward to form a barricade. "Well, fortunately for you, the eclipse won't be here for a little while yet…so I suppose we do have some time to play with you."

Bonnie stepped back nervously as Ash, Clemont, and Diantha held their ground, sharing a glance before nodding to each other and turning to face down their opponents. The men simultaneously released their Pokémon almost at once, prompting Ash and the others to do the same.

"Fletchinder, I choose you!" Ash called before turning to his partner down on the ground. "You ready, buddy?"

"Pika pika!" Pikachu nodded, a fire in its eyes as it ran out beside Fletchinder on the field. The two of them were up against Seth's Aggron and a Sableye.

"Luxio, Bunnelby, I need your help!" Clemont cried, releasing his two Pokémon as well, who were pitted against a Mawile and a Misdreavus.

"Goodra, come on out!" Diantha called at last before turning to her own partner. "Gardevoir, are you ready?" Gardevoir nodded back to her almost without a second thought and stepped forward alongside Goodra, standing across the field from a Gengar and a Sigilyph. However, rather than a battle, what commenced instead was a nervous staredown between everyone present, person and Pokémon alike, each side daring the other to make the first move.

As the stalemate wore on, nobody seemed to notice that the moon, which had only been slightly visible in the late morning sky, was slowly but surely beginning to turn a bright shade of crimson. The sixth hooded man, the one not fighting and who was assumed to be their leader, looked up at the approaching eclipse and smiled menacingly.

Finally, after some time had passed in almost complete silence, neither side wanting to be the first one to attack, the last bit of gray on the moon was filled in with red, and almost at once, the sundial began to glow. Leader smiled and turned toward Serena with a fierce glint in his eye.

"Wait – look at the sundial!" Clemont cried, noticing the reaction almost at once. "Diantha, what's happening to it?"

"I – I don't know!" The Champion admitted.

"Don't you?" The trainer of the Gengar shot back. "That crystal is extremely susceptible to quite a few different unusual occurrences in regard to the Earth and the moon, possibly even the sun, too. So when something like, say, a lunar eclipse happens…"

"A…an eclipse?" Diantha trailed off, looking up at the blood moon now hanging over them in the sky.

"That's right. The crystal resonates sometimes at sunrise or sunset on its own, but not like it is right now…"

"And now that it IS resonating, and so strongly, at that…" Leader suddenly spoke up, not taking his eyes off of Serena and the sundial behind her. "All we have to do is force the reaction that occurs when Mega Evolution takes place, and feed that energy into the crystal. Then…its energy will explode, and ALL Pokémon far and wide will know the glory of Mega Evolution!"

"You're going to try to force all wild Pokémon to Mega Evolve?!" Diantha exclaimed in disbelief.

"B-but…you can't! Most Pokémon can't Mega Evolve even with a Key Stone and a Mega Stone! Who knows what this will do to them?! And even the ones that survive won't be able to control themselves!" Clemont argued rapidly, now more determined than ever to put a stop to the hooded men.

"We humans have devised a term for such proceedings…it is called natural selection." Leader replied grimly, without a hint of remorse. "The ones that are not worthy will be wiped away, and what remains will be the mightiest group of Pokémon ever to walk the planet. It is the next natural step of evolution!"

"No, you're wrong!" Ash declared. "Mega Evolution isn't just a power you can give out whenever you want! It's a symbol of the connection between two living things, a Trainer and his Pokémon! If you try to force that on everyone like some kind of king, you're only going to end up destroying everything!"

"M-Mega Evolution is…a symbol…" Seth repeated to himself softly, the words seeming to ring a bell somewhere deep in his mind.

"What do you know about it, boy?!" Leader spat angrily. "I have not come this far to be stopped by a whelp like you!"

"And there's one more thing I didn't mention!" Ash continued on, ignoring Leader's words entirely. "There's absolutely no way that I'd EVER let you get away with using Serena for all of this!"

"A-Ash…" Serena breathed, and at that moment, the remains of the Hypnosis attack that had been recast on herself and Seth this morning broke, and her mind became her own again. "Ash!"

"Serena?!" Ash called, noticing the tonal shift in her voice. He took one look at her, and knew it was the real her again. "Serena! Don't worry, we're gonna get you out of there!"

"Ash, no, you can't!"

"Oh, what's this? You broke our control over you?" Leader remarked, looking down at her condescendingly. "No matter; the eclipse is already here. It's time we finish this!" He moved over to the console that was plugged in to the machine that Serena was in and began working the buttons, preparing to activate the device.

"What do you mean, we can't?!" Ash cried, attempting to run forward toward her, but stopping when Aggron and Sableye barred his path.

"Ash, all of you, listen! When this thing turns on and resonates with the sundial crystal, the shockwave will destroy anybody nearby without a Key Stone to protect them from it!" Serena explained frantically.

"Wh-what?!" Ash stammered in disbelief.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" Clemont murmured in frustration.

"Wait, what about you?!" Ash called back to her.

"Well…" She held her hand up reluctantly to show the Mega Bracelet that was now present on her wrist. "They gave me this, with a Key Stone in it…I think it's for the procedure…but it doesn't matter, anyway. If this procedure is completed…I can't survive it."

"What?!" Ash boomed, turning to face Seth angrily. "You knew about this, and you didn't try to stop them?!"

Seth merely turned away from him with a pained expression on his face. Ash grunted angrily and turned to Diantha and Clemont. "Guys, come on! We have to do something!"

Clemont looked back at him helplessly. "Y-yeah, but…" He turned back to indicate the literal wall of men and enemy Pokémon separating them from Serena.

Diantha, meanwhile, continued staring thoughtfully at the machine Serena was in, and her position relative to that of their leader. A few moments later, she nodded to Gardevoir. "You know what to do? Then go."

In an instant, Gardevoir Teleported behind the men, ending up only a few feet away from Serena.

"H-huh? Diantha - ?!" Ash exclaimed in surprise, looking back and forth between the Champion and her partner. Diantha merely grinned.

"Oh, I see." Leader answered knowingly, pausing from his work on the console for a moment to regard Gardevoir, who was now only about three yards in front of him. "But…I'm afraid it's still not good enough. One should always be prepared for the unthinkable, after all."

Gardevoir ignored him and reached out for Serena, but before she could grab her, Leader pressed a button on the console, and Serena was instantly shocked with an intensity that almost brought her to her knees on the spot, causing Ash's eyes to widen in fury.

"You didn't think I'd have some of my own personal insurance, did you? That Mega Bracelet we gave her isn't just for show, you know…"

Diantha gritted her teeth angrily. "…Gardevoir, come back." She ordered hesitantly, prompting her Pokémon to rematerialize next to herself and Goodra.

"Now that that's settled…I believe it's time for the main event." Leader remarked smugly. "This machine will simulate the process of Mega Evolution on her body…all that she must do is activate her Key Stone at that point, and then the combined reaction of energy in her body will destroy her; her energy will then be transferred into the crystal…and it will us into a new age!"

"Wait, stop!" Ash insisted.

"You can't – " Diantha began urgently.

"Oh, but I CAN!" Leader remarked, flipping a switch on the console and turning the machine on. Within moments, a circular pad lowered over Serena's head, identical to the pad she was standing on, and the two began producing a strange, rainbow-colored light in the space between them; the very space that Serena was standing in.

"SERENAAAA!" Ash called out desperately, throwing caution to the wind and running toward her despite the obstacles in his path.

"Yeah, right - !" Sableye's trainer cried, only to be promptly slugged in the face and knocked out by Seth before he could actually make a move. Not even a moment later, Aggron took its trainer's cue and delivered a swift and decisive Superpower to Sableye, removing it from the equation as well.

"Huh…?" Ash stopped briefly as he locked eyes with Seth, who merely smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Ash didn't stop to argue and continued on past him.

"Hey - !" A couple of the other men grunted, noticing Seth's sudden betrayal and turning to go after Ash. Seth and Aggron quickly stepped in between Ash and the rest of them without missing a beat, and was soon joined by Clemont and Diantha, as well as their Pokémon, encircling them from the other side.

"What?! The boy broke out of our Hypnosis, too…?" Leader remarked disdainfully. "Don't come any closer!" He threatened, eyeing Ash and placing his hand over the trigger for Serena's shock bracelet.

Ash skidded to a stop at once and turned to Serena in frustration. The crystal sundial was glowing even brighter than before from its position behind her.

"Ash, I told you guys to get out of here!" Serena insisted.

"No way! I'm not leaving you behind!"

"You have to go, or we'll ALL be destroyed! At least if you get away, then you all can – "

"No! I already told you, I'm not leaving without you!"

"Ash…!"

"That's enough talk!" Leader interrupted. "The time has come. Activate your Key Stone! Complete the ceremony!"

Serena's eyes widened as she felt the last vestiges of the Hypnosis spell trigger in her mind, and her left arm began to rise unbidden. "A-Ash…you don't have much time left…you've got to go…"

"NO!" Ash roared defiantly. "If it's a choice between getting out of here and living without you, or staying here and dying along with you…then – I choose to STAY!"

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, and despite the circumstances of everything that was currently going on around them, Serena's stomach did a backflip. "You…you…what?"

Ash's eyes fell to the ground, as he realized the leap he was taking by continuing to speak. "Everything that's been going on lately has made me realize…besides everything else that's important to me, like winning the Pokémon Leagues, or becoming a Pokémon Master…there's something else that's even more important to me than all of my other dreams. I didn't really get it at first, and I guess I still don't…but I know now that this has gotta be what I'm feeling." He looked up and met her gaze, and she saw a look in his eyes that she had never, ever seen before, not ever in her life. "I want to stay with you, Serena. Forever, beyond life and death. And, that's because…I love you."

"A-Ash – "

"That's ENOUGH! Activate the stone, NOW!"

"SERENAAA!"

"AAAASH!"

Despite her best efforts, Serena found that she couldn't resist the Hypnosis any longer, and she found herself bringing the Mega Bracelet up just as her other arm moved over to activate the Key Stone lodged inside of it.

"NOOOOO!" Ash bellowed, and just as he did, a rainbow-colored funnel of energy suddenly erupted from the crystal and into his body. He was instantly enveloped in a shimmering, rainbow-colored aura, and he felt the effects of it at once; his entire body felt as if it were supercharged, for lack of a better word.

"Wait…what's that?!" Clemont exclaimed, adjusting his glasses and staring at Ash in awe.

"The crystal…" Diantha mused. "It's almost as if it's sharing its power with Ash…"

"All right!" Bonnie cheered. "It's Mega Ash!"

"What – but how - ?!" Leader stammered angrily.

Ash frowned and clenched his fists, deciding to go with his gut instinct of accepting things at face value before charging forward. To everyone's surprise, though, he ran straight past Leader, and even past the machine and Serena, who was mere moments away from activating her Key Stone. He continued sprinting until he reached the base of the crystal, and when he did, he reared back and slammed his fist into it with all of his newfound power.

Almost at once, massive fractures began spreading throughout the entirety of the massive crystal, though it did not shatter. Leader realized what he was trying to do immediately, and abandoned his console to try and intercept him.

"What do you think you're doing?! You'll pay for attempting to interfere!" He roared, sprinting toward Ash with hatred in his eyes. Ash paused and turned away from the crystal for a moment, meeting the man's cold glare with one of his own. Leader reared back to swing at him, but before he could make contact, Ash surged forward, his hat flying off in the process as he used his body's newfound power to grab Leader by the head, and launch him back so far that he landed near the other hooded men, with the wind completely and utterly knocked out of him.

Everyone seemed frozen in shock, and all eyes were on Ash as he turned back to the gigantic sundial one last time. With a sense of finality in his eyes, he clenched his fist, reared back, and delivered one final blow to the crystal, pouring every bit of his 'Mega Evolution's power into the blow. Many more fractures appeared upon the tops of the old ones, and then, almost entirely at once, the crystal shattered into a rain of thousands of small shards, just as the blood moon hanging in the sky above them began to fade back to its natural color.

* * *

As it turned out, the machine Serena had been in didn't actually end up doing anything to her, likely due to the fact that she never actually activated the Key Stone, and, of course, the fact that she was not a Pokémon. The power Ash had obtained from the crystal disappeared as quickly as it had come, but before any of the hooded men could make any serious moves against any of them, a squad of Officer Jennys showed up, apparently following a report that a civilian had made upon being forced to clear the sundial plaza some time earlier that morning. The Jennys took the men into custody and cordoned off the plaza to do further investigation on the machine they had been using, as well as to clean up the remains of the sundial.

Upon explanation of the situation to them, they also decided not to hold Ash accountable for destroying the valuable icon of the city that had been the crystalline sundial, though they still admitted that Anistar City would never be quite the same without it.

The five friends, as well as Diantha, ended up reconciling after all of the other stuff had finally been taken care of. Seth apologized for what he had done while under Hypnosis, as well as Serena. Diantha agreed to get them all a ride back to Coumarine City so that they could resume their journey where they left off, an offer which they happily took her up on.

As the afternoon wore on, Diantha had still not returned with their promised transportation, and despite the fact that they had appreciated the chance to rest after the morning's events, they were now finally beginning to grow restless.

The five of them had been relaxing in the city park, which a portion of rested near the edge of the city, giving a perfect view of the large river that ran beside the town.

"You know…I really didn't think I'd say this today, but…I'm bored." Bonnie admitted sadly.

"Yeah…I wonder where Diantha ended up going?" Clemont pondered. They were all occupying the same bench, going in order of Ash, Clemont, Bonnie, Seth, Serena down the line.

"Who knows?" Seth remarked, jumping up suddenly and stretching, as if gaining a sudden burst of energy. "If you guys are _really_ bored, though, I bet we can go find something to do back in town."

"Mm…yeah, I guess you're right." Bonnie agreed, getting up to join him. "It's gotta be better than sitting around here."

"Well, if Bonnie's going, then I guess I'll be joining you, too." Clemont said, also getting from the bench, leaving Ash and Serena alone on opposite ends.

"Y-yeah, sounds like fun – " Ash began, standing up but being blocked in his path by Seth.

"Ah-ah-ah." Seth scolded. "You two don't get to come along."

"What?! Why not?" Ash whined.

"Because you two haven't spoken all day, and I'd like to actually have fun exploring the town." Seth explained bluntly.

"I hate to say it, Ash, but he does have a point." Clemont agreed.

"Wha – Clemont, you too?!"

"You two play nice while we're gone, okay?" Bonnie added teasingly, giggling at him as she spoke.

"What – I – wait a minute, you guys!" Ash persisted, but the three of them merely ran away as he spoke, smiling and laughing back at him all the way out of the park.

He remained standing there a moment before finally turning back to Serena, who was turned away from him. He slowly and awkwardly maneuvered his way back to the bench, grappling with himself mentally before finally deciding to sit down right next to her.

"S-so…um…Serena…" Ash began slowly, honestly at a complete and utter loss as to what he was supposed to say to her. She remained looking away from him, causing the silence to persist once again until Ash decided to take a different approach. "Look…I'm sorry if you're all confused because of what I said back there. To be honest, I didn't really even know what I was doing…I just kinda did it, and said whatever came to my mind." She remained silent once again. He looked down at his hand and flexed it slightly, back and forth a few times. "You know, Diantha said she thinks that whatever came out of that crystal had something to do with powerful emotions. So even if I don't really know what I was talking about, that at least means something…right?"

Serena still maintained her posture, and clenched her fists across her lap at his words this time. He sighed, as even he could tell that he wasn't making any progress with her. "All right, well…if you want to, we could just pretend like none of this ever happened. I think it'd be worth it if you would just…talk to me again."

At that, just as he was about to get up and walk away, she finally snapped and turned to face him, so quickly that Ash almost jumped. "Ash…"

"Uh…?" Ash grunted in response, not sure what else to say. She merely sat there for a few moments, meeting his confused look with a piercing one of her own.

"…Did…did you really mean it? What you said back there?"

"Huh…?" Ash breathed, getting a slight feeling that this might be the reason she had been ignoring him all day. To him, it seemed almost like a stupid question, but he could tell just by looking at her that somewhere deep inside of her, she needed to hear him tell her himself. "Of course I did. Do you think I could make up…stuff like that?"

At his words, she finally broke into a smile, and to Ash, that might as well have been the equivalent of the heavens themselves parting. "Oh…Ash! Thank you!" She exclaimed, moving forward and throwing her arms around him.

"Serena…?"

"You don't know how long I've wanted to hear that from you…" Serena told him softly as she rested her head against his chest. "So many days of wondering what you thought about me, or if you even particularly noticed me…and then feeling worried, because of everything that's been going on recently…"

Ash's expression softened, and he awkwardly but delicately reached around and put an arm around her. "You…weren't the only one, you know..."

She looked up at him and smiled, and like a sudden rush, all of her memories of her developing feelings for him suddenly surged into the forefront of her mind. She remembered how she felt when she first met him as a child, the feeling that she later realized was a crush. She remembered the exhilaration she felt when she saw him on TV, and set out to go and meet up with him. There was the nervousness she felt upon meeting him again which quickly transitioned into admiration and attraction, feelings that only became stronger over time. She regretfully remembered feeling twinges of jealousy when they encountered Korrina, and the dedication she had felt toward him that led her to swim to the Tower of Mastery on her own. She remembered the night that they had almost kissed under the moonlight…and the crushing disappointment she had felt when she'd allowed herself to believe that that could never happen.

With all of these feelings rushing through her head, she brought her face right up next to his, and uttered four simple words to him before boldly closing the gap and sharing her first kiss with him.

"I love you, too."

* * *

_As I mentioned before, I'm not really sure how well this one turned out, relatively speaking, because of the gaps in chapter updates. When you take a break from something for that long, you can sometimes notice a difference in the quality even after you pick it up again...Love is Blind II seemed to survive intact, back when I wrote that, but this one I'm not so sure about, unfortunately. I suppose I will leave that up to you all to decide._

_With that being said, it is a huge relief to have this finally be finished! I know I didn't really bother much with the villains in this one, but I think that's because I'm tired of writing up reasoning and backstory for villains in these Pokemon fics; it always ends up being the same thing, more or less, because when you really delve into it, there's not much wiggle room to have 'bad guys' that are relevant to a blossoming relationship in the Pokemon universe, everyone is too nice for that. The only real villains you can have are just self-indulgent criminals, possibly ones with a larger vision, and I think I was just tired of trying to flesh out something for the umpteenth time that ultimately would just end up being the same as all of the other bad guys I've written (for Pokemon)._

_Anyway, I am at least happy with how it all ultimately ended, at least as far as Ash and Serena are concerned. I might've liked writing a bit more of a bookend to Korrina and Seth's characters, but in the end I ultimately just decided that it wasn't really necessary to the overall story. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading it, as it is, as much as I have enjoyed writing it! Thanks again for sticking with it through all the delays!_


End file.
